Dashun Yongchang

What's more, for the sake of one's own reputation, what kind of righteousness is it to ignore one's companions, village, and family?Don't you know that if Your Majesty investigates your deeds today, the people of Yancheng will be harmed by you today.The righteousness you speak of is really terrifying, and I dare not agree with it.

It's useless to say more, everyone please. "

Just when Wu Yiqing was about to turn around and go back, Song Cao suddenly walked over quickly, took out a tael of silver and said, "Emperor Yongchang just said that he will be fined a tael of silver, please accept it, Mr. Wu."

Wu Yiqing took the money, nodded, and then turned and entered the venue.At this time, a vote was started in the venue because of Lu Zhenfei's new proposal, and it was finally passed with more than two-thirds of the votes in favor.The previous meeting crisis caused by the representatives of Yancheng was covered up by this topic.

Li Zicheng finally sat back and continued to preside over today's discussion.Because of this episode, the discussion in the subsequent meeting became more rapid instead. Members no longer cared about some red tape, but chose to follow the trend.

Gu Jiang watched with relish, although Song Lu and others' sudden attack made him embarrassed for a while, and he didn't know whether to stand up and support them, or pretend not to know them.However, Li Zicheng solved the problem he was facing by punishing them with the rules formulated by the council.

Originally, what Song Lu provoked was a life-and-death struggle between the loyal men of the Ming Dynasty and Dashun, but under Li Zicheng's operation, it turned into a small mistake in which several people violated the rules of the meeting hall.

With this step to go down, let alone Gu Jiang, more than half of the Yancheng students who came with Song Lu did not stand up.Since it was not a life-and-death struggle, it would be too ridiculous to stand up against Li Zicheng for fines, not to mention that these students were also dissatisfied with the sudden attack by Song Lu and others, and completely regarded them and the Yancheng elders as vassals.

The next meeting process was quite interesting for Gu Jiang, although the discussions were all about local affairs in Huai'an, and the support for the Shun Army was relatively vague, because the councilors were more familiar with what the local people needed.And this is exactly the purpose of the local self-government power that Gu Jiang wants, to improve the local people's livelihood.

At noon, some councilors left the feudal mansion, but Gu Jiang noticed that some councilors did not leave, but went to another courtyard instead.Wang Lue then told him, "The council will provide a meal for all members. Of course, you can also eat it at home. The standard of the meal is two dishes and one soup. Although it is a bit simple, the food is still very clean."

Seeing this, Gu Jiang held back Wang Lue, saying that it was settled in the cafeteria at noon today.To Gu Jiang's surprise, there is also a specially set up member's library in the meeting hall, which allows the members to have fun after meals.There are many kinds of books in this library, and there are foreign books and the latest newspapers.

Looking at the rows of bookshelves in the library, Gu Jiang finally understood why so many councilors stayed in the cafeteria. Compared with the lunch provided by the council, this is a mouth-watering spiritual feast.

While Gu Jiang was lingering in the library, Li Zicheng was also entertaining several representatives from Yangzhou, and he said sincerely to these representatives sent by Yangzhou: "The meeting you saw this morning is the organization I hope to form in Yangzhou.

I can understand the uneasiness of the people of Yangzhou towards foreign troops, so I will not ask the troops to enter the city unless necessary.And Yangzhou's civil affairs can also be handed over to the council for decision, and you can raise any other demands.

However, the armed personnel in Yangzhou City must be reorganized, and the laws of Yangzhou must adopt the laws formulated by me, Dashun..."

Chapter 151 Meeting Four

Sitting with Li Zicheng at dinner were Yangzhou Tuiguan Tang Laihe and Yangzhou squire Wang Fulong. They were entrusted by the censor of Youqian Capital, the supervisor of Huaiyang Salt and French Army Salary Huang Jiarui, and the deputy city defense envoy Ma Minglu to negotiate with Li Zicheng. The problem of peacefully taking over Yangzhou City.

The reason why the Yangzhou people betrayed the Hongguang court and turned to Dashun was because they were miserably harmed by Gao Jie's department.When Gao Jie's tribe fled from Shanxi to the south, they plundered all the way, from Xuzhou, Sizhou to Yangzhou. It was said at the time: "If you kill people, you will pile up corpses, and if you commit adultery, you will humiliate young girls."Faced with such an army of beasts, the people of Yangzhou would rather strike the city and close the city than let them enter the city after arriving in Yangzhou.

Naturally, Gao Jie's army, who was rejected, would not give up, so they attacked Yangzhou City, killing and looting many civilians.And this was the first time that Gao Jie's army slaughtered Yangzhou. When the four towns supported Dai Fufan to ascend the throne, Liu Zeqing got the appointment from the Hongguang court to expropriate Huai'an and Yangzhou, and Gao Jie also got the appointment from the Hongguang court to resettle his family members in Yangzhou. The edict of the city.

So Liu Zeqing and Gao Jie indulged in the battle of soldiers and horses in order to fight for the ownership of Yangzhou. Liu Zeqing robbed a Yangzhou city and returned to Huai'an when he was defeated. Gao Jie attacked Yangzhou again because the people of Yangzhou refused to obey the imperial edict.Gao Jie's army guarded all the gates of Yangzhou, and killed those who were found to be civilians in the city, and cut off the right ear of those living outside the city. This was the second massacre of Yangzhou.

By this time, Yangzhou people's resentment towards Gao Jie was beyond words, especially the local gentry, represented by Ma Minglu, deputy city defense envoy, not only organized regiments to practice defending the city, but also organized regiments to go out of the city to intercept and kill Gao Jie's army.Later, because of the Dashun Army's southward movement and Huang Degong's defection, Gao Jiejun restrained his behavior and expressed his willingness to coexist peacefully with the people of Yangzhou.

But by this time, it was no longer possible for the people of Yangzhou to trust Gao Jiejun.Li Zicheng went south with the crown prince and captured Huai'an City so quickly, the people of Yangzhou began to call for Dashun's asylum.At this time, Li Zicheng sent Wan Shouqi to the south to persuade Huang Jiarui, the governor of Yangzhou, that the two were friends.

Although Huang Jiarui advocated allegiance to the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Hongguang's behavior was too disappointing. When Li Zicheng raised his troops to the south, there were still strife within the Southern Capital, and he couldn't even send an important minister across the river to sit in Yangzhou to suppress the fierce fighting between the four towns.At this time, he also lost his confidence in fighting against Dashun, and instead pinned his hopes on the prince, hoping that Li Zicheng could keep his word and send the prince to Nandu, and then rebuild Daming.

With the acquiescence of Huang Jiarui and the active promotion of Ma Mingpao, Tang Laihe and Wang Fulong became representatives of Yangzhou. One was to discuss conditions with Li Zicheng, and the other was to invite Shunjun to go south.

Tang Laihe weighed Li Zicheng's request, and he had to admit that the request was quite lenient.After Wang Fulong experienced the way of attending the meeting in the morning, as a squire, he felt that this new gadget was very good. If the meeting could protect local interests, then these local squires would naturally be the biggest beneficiaries.

As for Li Zicheng's accusations against officials and squires in the morning, he didn't feel any pressure, because he didn't expect to use the council to interfere in any major state affairs.Those young scholars were indeed impulsive and tried to oppose Li Zicheng in the council.But they forgot one thing, this meeting was created by Li Zicheng, not the inheritance of Ming Dynasty, so to accuse Li Zicheng at the meeting, first of all, they have betrayed Daming, they should stand outside the door and resist new gadgets like the meeting That's right.

Since the two of them both accepted Dashun's conditions from their respective standpoints, the following conversation will be very easy.Li Zicheng promised not to let the army enter Yangzhou City without the invitation of the people of Yangzhou, and to hand over the civil power to the Yangzhou Council, and the two also promised to hand over the power of Yangzhou City to Dashun, and agreed to let the force Accept the reorganization of the Shun Army.

Regarding the two people's question about when the Shun army would go south, Li Zicheng thought for a while and said: "There are still some things that haven't been done in Huai'an, at least we have to wait for Cihong to arrive in Huai'an and let him sit here, so I can feel at ease." Go south."

Tang Laihe was a little surprised by Li Zicheng's answer. He originally thought that the prince was just a banner in Li Zicheng's hands.After all, the Ming Dynasty has lasted for nearly 300 years, and the natural and man-made disasters of the Chongzhen Dynasty were removed. In fact, the people of the Ming Dynasty can still live well, especially in the south of the Yangtze River, which enjoys the greatest benefits of the Ming Dynasty.

Although Susong has always had a good opinion of the imperial court because of the heavy taxation, the land tax here has been three times higher than that of other regions since the beginning of the country.However, as the region with the most developed commodity economy in the Ming Dynasty, especially after the Ming Dynasty recognized silver as currency, the Jiangnan region began to draw blood from all over the world, and the north suffered especially severely.

In Jiangnan, more than 2000 Wen is exchanged for one tael of silver, but in Shaanxi, Shanxi and other places, it is still 800 Wen for one tael of silver.Even if the money in Jiangnan is privately minted small money, it can only be worth 2 renminbi to 1 renminbi, and a tael of silver can be exchanged for 200 more renminbi in Jiangnan than in the north.

This means that it seems that the silver-denominated goods are unified in the north and the south, but when converted into copper coins used by the common people, every one tael of goods sold from the south to the north is worth 1 tael, 2 cents and 5 cents even if it is sold at a par price.The silver from the north naturally flowed into the south continuously, and the silver was actually a problem with the imperial court's monetary policy, and it was not a reasonable income for the Jiangnan economy.

Therefore, the Liao pay collected by the imperial court from all over the world was finally cheaper for the merchants in Jiangnan.For the people in the south of the Yangtze River, the biggest evil of the imperial court is actually the battle of white grain. The expenditure of transporting the grain from the south to Beijing is eight or nine times higher than the grain itself. It is possible to break the house once.

But now that Beijing has fallen, the task of transporting grain to the north has been interrupted, and the burden on everyone has been reduced, so naturally they think of the benefits of the Ming Dynasty. At least the gentry of the Ming Dynasty feel that they lived during the Wanli Dynasty. not bad.Coupled with the fact that Emperor Chongzhen died so fiercely for his country, even the generals of the Peasant Army felt a little sympathetic to the Ming Emperor, let alone those people who still miss the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, Tang Laihe felt that whether he could get close to the prince this time in the north was really an unpredictable question.But seeing Li Zicheng talking about the prince's arrival so easily, and saying that he must let the prince sit in Huai'an so that he can go south with peace of mind, he was a little uncertain about his judgment.So with this doubt, Tang Laihe and Li Zicheng ended their lunch meeting.

Li Zicheng arrived at the venue in the afternoon, but he did not start the meeting agenda in the afternoon, but first made a summary of the speeches of the members of the various groups in the morning: "...From the speeches of the members of the groups in the morning, it is obvious that everyone is concerned about propaganda work, money and food. Issues such as fundraising work and the organization of the people have been discussed in detail.

Then I want to make a systematic summary of my speech in the morning. First of all, whether it is propaganda, raising money and food, or organizing the people, we all need a thriving Huai'an City.

Because we can’t print newspapers and pamphlets without pen, ink and paper, and without literacy education for ordinary citizens, they can’t understand the content of newspapers and pamphlets, and they don’t understand the relationship between the policies issued by the imperial court and their lives.

And if you want to raise money and food, you must first develop the economy of Huai'an City. If Huai'an City is a poor city, then what power does it have to provide money, food and materials for the army?

Similarly, to organize the people, one must rely on scholars, and the other must have money and food.It is impossible for us to let a group of illiterates organize the people, because they themselves do not understand what an organization is and what it means to organize the people.It is also impossible for us to let the people go hungry or bring their own dry food to serve the court. Although we are protecting their interests, the people have already paid their taxes, and they have no reason to pay another.

Therefore, I think that before completing the above tasks, we should also start to consider the task of how to make Huai'an prosperous. "

The councilors in the lobby were a little confused, and soon some councilors got up and asked: "Your Majesty, isn't Huai'an not prosperous enough now? Although it is a bit exaggerated to compare Hexia to Yangzhou, at least Hexia can be worth three points." One of them is Yangzhou."

Although these councilors are not willing to reveal their property in front of Li Zicheng, they are still very interested in defending the honor of Huai'an. After all, this honor is often related to the importance that the imperial court attaches to a certain place.Cities such as Huai'an and Yangzhou that developed on the basis of salt and water were actually greatly influenced by the policies of the imperial court.Only cities like Suzhou and Songjiang, which are dominated by handicraft industries, will ignore the imperial court.

Li Zicheng shook his head after knocking the gavel on the views of the congressmen, and said, "Whether it is Yangzhou or Huai'an, in my opinion, it is a kind of illusory wealth. Because these two cities have lost the monopoly power granted by the imperial court." After that, what do you think is left?"

The councilors in the lower hall fell silent for a moment. Except for a few big landlords, most of the councilors were either related to the salt industry or water transportation. Li Zicheng was right. Without the monopoly power granted by the imperial court, Huai'an and Yangzhou would only have It's just a garden everywhere.Merchants relied on salt and water to accumulate a lot of wealth, and the people of these two cities provided services to these merchants in exchange for money and food to support their families. If the imperial court cut off their monopoly on salt and water, then the two cities would The people of the city are about to disperse, because the merchants cannot afford to support them.

To put it bluntly, there is a shipyard in Huai'an anyway, and Yangzhou's largest industry revolves around the personal services of the rich, from food, drink, entertainment to women. Without the consumption of these rich people, how can ordinary people afford to spend?For example, the most famous salted dishes in Yangzhou do not refer to dishes with added salt, but delicacies that salt merchants pursue. The cost of a meal is often the annual income of ordinary people. How can ordinary people afford it?

Li Zicheng went on to say: "The city of Huai'an was developed by relying on salt and water, but what surprised me is that there are still local people who can't afford official salt and buy private salt. And Cao Ding, shipbuilding craftsmen It has become the norm for them to be naked and hungry.

I remember a poet in the Tang Dynasty who wrote a poem, which read: Plant a grain of millet in spring, and harvest ten thousand seeds in autumn.There is no idle land in the world, and the peasants still starve to death.Looking at the city of Huai'an now, I think you are very dangerous.

The laborers who have created wealth for this city can't even provide food and clothing, and some people are still showing off that their meals cost tens of gold, and the purchase of singing girls is calculated by team rather than by individual.I'm curious, don't you feel like you're sitting on the crater of a volcano?What would you do if the volcano erupted? "

Chapter 152

Seeing Li Zicheng say such words in a flat tone, the members below remembered that the person sitting with them to discuss matters was not the former officials who could use public opinion to force them, but Dashun who rebelled against the superior emperor.

In the past two days, Li Zicheng sat with them to discuss affairs according to the rules established by everyone, and they almost forgot that Li Zicheng was not bound by these rules, as long as he wanted to.

Under the suggestion of a group of representatives, Yan Xiuling could only bite the bullet and stood up and said to Li Zicheng: "Caomin and others are stupid, not as far-sighted as your Majesty, please show your majesty that Caomin and others are willing to do their best."

Yan Xiuling only said to do his best, but not to obey orders, which shows that these congressmen still have reservations about themselves, Li Zicheng guessed in his heart.However, he was not surprised by the reaction of the congressmen. It would be strange if these feudal gentry and salt merchants who made their fortunes by relying on feudal dictatorship could really serve themselves wholeheartedly.

He glanced at the people in the hall and saw them all sitting upright, he couldn't help but feel relieved, and then said: "I think the prosperity of a city is based on the number of people, because people are the foundation of all social wealth." Creator, without people there would be no wealth at all, even if there is a gold mine buried under Huai'an, if no one digs it out, it will be just a pile of earth and rocks.

Wealth is the sum of all things that are beneficial to human beings and can be possessed by human beings.That is to say, goods that cannot be beneficial to human beings and cannot be occupied by human beings cannot be called wealth.

Without the wealth created by people, or without the large amount of wealth created by the people of Huai'an, the Marshal's Mansion would not be able to extract a lot of money and food to supply the army here.It can be seen from this that our primary goal is to enable Huai'an to retain people, how to retain people?Then we must first improve the survival and living conditions of the people in Huai'an.

Simply put, it is to allow people to survive in Huai'an, and to let people see the hope of living in Huai'an in the future.Even simpler is to allow people to live and work in Huai'an.

What is Live and Work?It is nothing more than meeting the four basic needs of people, food, clothing, housing and transportation.How to meet the four basic needs of people is firstly to increase the wages of laborers, secondly to expand jobs, and then to improve the city's public services to reduce the living expenses of laborers in this city.

Take the salt industry as an example. The salt import system implemented by the Ming Dynasty can only benefit a few merchants. Both the salt households and the common people are victims. Salt and light food, is this reasonable? "

Some local councilors voiced their support: "It's really unreasonable. The salt produced in the Lianghuai River ended up benefiting foreign salt merchants. Instead, we have to buy high-priced salt to eat. It's really unreasonable."

The representative from the salt merchant tried to refute a few words, but was quickly suppressed by the local congressmen. At this time, there are many people and sometimes the truth.These congressmen who came from salt merchants didn't even dare to swear. It's not that they can't afford the money, it's because there are a lot of people who oppose them.

In the past, most of the councilors here did not see officials above the prefect without special circumstances, but those big salt merchants were the guests of the officials. The gardens they built inside and outside Huai'an City were mainly for the purpose of entertaining of officials.Otherwise, how could the gardens of Du Guangshao's family house so many vassal princes and clans, because these gardens had already considered the needs of entertaining foreign guests when they were built.

Of course, those salt merchants are interested in and are willing to deal with are either current officials, retired officials, or literary leaders who may become officials. It can only be a nod of acquaintance.

However, these students or juren who are not in official positions are often quite influential in the countryside, because they can only teach or take up lawsuits if they cannot be officials, so their contacts with the common people are much closer than those of officials and gentry.Also because of this, these students or veterans were often easily elected as representatives of the first Huai'an Council.

Without involving their own or local interests, these local councilors would naturally not stand up as an enemy of the salt merchants, and no one wanted to make an enemy for themselves for nothing.But for issues related to local interests, these councilors can still work together to deal with the salt merchants, hoping to use this opportunity to pluck a few hairs from the salt merchants to take care of the local people.

Li Zicheng felt a sense of accomplishment in his heart when he saw the opposition among the councilors. If they didn't fight, the reforms below would really be impossible, because the local people wouldn't trust him as an outsider so easily.

He slammed the table with the gavel in his hand, and looked at the congressmen and shouted: "Everyone is quiet, everyone is quiet, the reform of the salt industry must be carried out. The princes in the hall, the common people in the world can't tell.

To reform the salt administration, to make salt affordable for the common people, to increase the income of salt households, and to allow more people to share in the profits from the salt trade is the significance of reforming the salt administration.Who else is not clear, if you are not clear, you can stand up and tell me, there is no need to argue in private.This is the state affairs of my Dashun, and the opposition of one or two people cannot change my determination. "

Now there is no need for other people to wink, Yan Xiuling stood up by himself, and asked Li Zicheng nervously: "Xiaomin dares to ask Your Majesty, what is the specific content of this salt administration reform? The salt guide issued by the previous court is not enough." Who is it?"

Li Zicheng knew that these salt merchants would be anxious to get angry, and after the corruption of China and France, Daming's salt profits were monopolized by hoarders who controlled Yanyin.The so-called hoarders rely on the salt obtained from the imperial court to monopolize the salt shipments of the salt farms. As a feudal dynasty, there is no such thing as controlling desires, so after the Ming Dynasty messed up the treasures, they messed up Yanyin, in the end, the finance of the Ming Dynasty was trapped in the land tax and could not get out.

When the emperor used Yanyin as a reward for free money, by the end of the Wanli period, the Ming Dynasty's salt administration had become so corrupt that it was impossible to see.For example, the annual output of the Lianghuai Salt Field is more than 70 yin, and each yin is 570 catties. This is the quota established by the Ming Dynasty at the beginning of the country.

In other words, even if a meteorite falls from the sky and sinks the Lianghuai Salt Field, you still have to hand over these quotas to the imperial court.Why is it so rigid?Because Zhu Yuanzhang had established rules that would never be easy when he founded the country, as long as he followed this set of rules, then Ming Dynasty could exist forever.Why can't this set of rules be changed, because every tax has a specified destination, if you can't collect this tax, there will be places to starve, and the court can only borrow, which will create a deficit, and then create more money. The more loopholes, the more corrupt the state affairs will be.

Therefore, when the Emperor Daming rewarded Yanyin as a free piece of paper, Yanyin was really about to become waste paper.In the 45th year of Wanli, the backlog of salt in the Lianghuai River reached more than 200 million yuan, which was almost the output of the Lianghuai Salt Field in three years.Under such circumstances, Yuan Shizhen proposed to the imperial court to reform the salt law.

However, his reforms can only fix the loopholes, and cannot push back the rules established by Zhu Yuanzhang.Therefore, the Gangsalt Law he introduced tried to clear up the accumulated salts in ten years, but in the end it just created new ones.In the 17th year of Chongzhen, the Lianghuai saltworks owed more than 250 million salts, and because of the escape of salt households, the annual output of 70 salts is now only 37.32.

It can be said that the Lianghuai salt industry has become a burden for the imperial court. In the past year, the salt tax of 66 taels can now be turned over to about 7 taels, while the imperial court owes more than one million to the salt merchants. two.

Thinking of this, Li Zicheng replied calmly: "I think you should first understand two things. First, the imperial court that sold salt to you was the Ming Dynasty; second, the salt tax collected by the imperial court in advance was not used for relief The disaster victims in the north were used to pay the officers and soldiers who suppressed the uprising peasants. Then I really want to ask, if you are me, do you want to accept this account?"

Yan Xiuling's face suddenly turned pale, not only him, but also the councilors sitting beside him were also on the verge of collapse, as if they were about to pass out.Although they still have money, it would be difficult for them to accept such a fortune if it disappeared.However, none of the congressmen dared to stand up and tell Li Zicheng at this time that although the Ming court used the salt class to suppress the peasant army, it still had to accept the Dashun.

However, Li Zicheng does not intend to renege on debts, because repudiating debts can only eliminate past debts, and Dashun will not get any benefits. As for future benefits, Dashun wants to get at least future benefits without investing a lot of money in the renovation of Lianghuai Saltworks. It will take more than ten years, but his top priority now is to keep Dashun alive, so he still has to cooperate with these salt merchants who have a lot of capital in their hands.

So when everyone was silent, Li Zicheng continued: "However, the salt industry is an important part of the national economy. Salt is not only a necessity in the daily life of the people, but also a raw material needed by the production sector. Whether it is the food processing industry , or the textile and leather industries, salt is indispensable.

Now, the Lianghuai salt field has changed from 30 in the early Ming Dynasty to the current 29. Because of the impact of the sediment brought by the Yellow River on the coastal siltation of Huainan, only more than 20 can actually be produced.With such a status quo, it is obviously unable to meet the requirements of the country's economic development.

Therefore, I intend to reform the Lianghuai Salt Farm, and establish a salt company jointly funded by the government and private individuals. The salt monopoly rights of each province will be transferred to the salt industry company. The company is managed by the board of directors authorized by shareholders, and investors enjoy dividends in proportion to their shares, so as to ensure that the interests of the salt industry are shared equally, instead of being controlled by a few people.

Of course, I am not doing good deeds, not everyone can buy shares in the new salt industry company.My Dashun protects the legal property of private individuals, so the salt imports purchased from the official channels of the state will be recognized by the Marshal's Mansion, but those salt imports of unknown origin will be abolished.

In the next three months, businessmen who hold the salt of the Lianghuai Saltworks need to go to the Ministry of Finance under the Marshal of the capital for registration and verification.After confirmation, the Yanyin will be converted into salt industry bonds, and the Marshal's Mansion will pay an annual interest of 3%.You can also use these public bonds to buy shares in Lianghuai Salt Industry Company, but you are only allowed to use public bonds to pay no more than 3% of the stock value..."

Chapter 153

While the members present were still digesting the news about the Lianghuai Salt Industry Company thrown out by Li Zicheng, Li Zicheng continued: "The reform of the salt administration should not be discussed here. The Ministry of Finance will contact the salt merchants in the future. Hold a discussion to discuss the details of the salt company.

The reason why I mentioned the reform of the salt administration in the meeting is because the reform of the salt administration has something to do with the prosperity of Huai'an.I have just said that Huai'an must first become prosperous in order to provide more money, food and supplies for the Dashun army on the front line.So how to make Huai'an prosperous is naturally inseparable from Huai'an's current salt, water and agriculture.

Although the two sides of the Huaihe River were flooded because of the Yellow River's seizure of the Huaihe River, the agricultural conditions here are still much better than those in the north.As long as we can build the water conservancy in Huang, Huai, and Yun, Huai'an will be able to restore the grand occasion of the land of fish and rice in history.

Then, in turn, the agricultural development of Huai'an also promoted the development of the breeding industry, and a large number of livestock such as chickens, ducks and pigs can be raised in Huai'an.When dealing with the storage of these livestock, salt must be added.If we don't reform the salt policy, what will farmers use to process these livestock?Too expensive table salt will make processed meat products no one cares about in the market.

In addition to agriculture and animal husbandry on land that need salt as a raw material for food processing, fishermen who fish at sea also need to use salt to process the caught fish so that they can be brought back to the shore for sale.

Of course, I am referring to going to the far sea to go fishing, such as in the big and small Ryukyu, the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese archipelago, or the area north of the Japanese archipelago.Those places not only have a large number of fish, but also have huge whales. Compared with ordinary fish, an ordinary whale can be worth 500 meat pigs. It also has excellent leather on its body, which can be used to replace cowhide.

For such fishing far from the mainland, the boats must be large, and it takes more than half a year to go to sea at a time, so they must bring enough salt for processing when they go to sea, which broadens the market for salt sales.What the Lianghuai Salt Field lacks today is not productivity, but a stable growth space, otherwise we will not let those private salt dealers disappear.

This is the need to reform the salt policy, because we need more salt to develop ocean fishing, agriculture, and animal husbandry.However, deep-water fishing and offshore fishing are not the same concept. It requires a large amount of capital investment. It is simply difficult for ordinary fishermen to support overseas sailing for more than half a year, and the risk is too great.

In this way, there will be opportunities for investment. Members, please think about it carefully.Two catties of salted fish cost 1 penny, and a 1500-shi fishing boat goes out to sea twice a year. Calculated based on 1600% of the load, there is also an income of 300 taels. After deducting 300 depreciation of the boat, the sailing cost is 500, labor is 500, and the profit is 300. Give the shipowner 18 taels, and the return on investment is 20-[-]%.

This is only the income from the salted fish brought back. As far as I know, the salt in North Korea and Japan is much more expensive than ours. If the fishing boats can bring more salt to sell to the fishermen in North Korea and Japan, the profit may be able to double the..."

If everyone was skeptical about Li Zicheng's prosperity plan before, at this time someone finally couldn't help asking: "Your Majesty, can this fishing boat sell salt overseas? The Marshal's Mansion even allows this?"

Li Zicheng replied without changing his face: "The Marshal's Mansion is only responsible for collecting taxes and supervising the production of salt industry. Whether the domestic salt sales area should be changed or not depends on the Ministry of Finance and the salt merchants. But for foreign salt sales, Before the Marshal’s Mansion issued a ban, I thought it was legal. But I want to make it clear that the salt sold by the salt company to fishing boats is not taxed, so if the fishing boats don’t use the salt to process the caught fish, Then after returning to the country, you must take the initiative to declare and pay taxes.

In addition, fishing boats should respect local laws when selling salt overseas. Of course, the Marshal’s Mansion believes that free trade is the general trend, so when the time is right, the Marshal’s Mansion will contact overseas regions to establish a free trade agreement to protect our country overseas trade.Of course, the Marshal's Mansion only protects legal trade activities that have paid taxes. "

Although Li Zicheng emphasized that it must be legal, but after hearing the ears of the members below, it became legal as long as he paid taxes to the Marshal's Mansion.Not to mention those representatives of the local gentry who are eager to try, even the representatives of the salt merchants who were originally resistant to the reform of the salt industry have loosened their frowns again.

Because of the natural disasters and wars in the late Ming Dynasty, the Central Plains lost a large number of people, and the transportation industry was hit hard, which led to a period of decline for the Lianghuai salt industry.Although this recession has not affected the lives of the salt merchants so far, the salt merchants are still very worried about their business after all without seeing the end of the war.

However, the Ming Dynasty's salt administration was a state-controlled monopoly business, and the court only thought about how to extract more money from salt merchants and ensure that the people bought a certain share.The salt monopoly of the Ming Dynasty was not only aimed at the production and sales process, but also how much salt the people ate in a year. After all, Zhu Yuanzhang had already stipulated how much salt the people ate in a year, so he set the output of Ming Dynasty salt.

This system of salt production and sales made salt merchants both satisfied and dissatisfied.What is satisfactory is that as long as they can establish a good relationship with the officials, the salt merchants who get the salt can make a steady profit without losing money.What's dissatisfying is that once you have a bad relationship with officials, the Yanyin behind you will get the salt, but you can't get it, which is a clear loss of money.

Therefore, when Li Zicheng said just now that he would carry out the reform of the salt administration, take the form of a joint-stock company to operate the salt farms and sell them, and turn the accumulated salt into public bonds, although the congressmen from salt merchants opposed it, they were not firm in their hearts.If Li Zicheng can really ensure that the benefits are shared equally, then although they will lose part of the benefits, they will also lose the share of tribute to officials. After corporatization, they will definitely not need to pay tribute to officials personally.

However, if the new salt company can also sell salt overseas via distant water fishing vessels, then there is undoubtedly a lot to do.The combined population of North Korea and Japan is equivalent to at least half of the population of Jiangnan. Even if only half of the people eat the salt of Huaihe River and Huaihe River, this is equivalent to having an extra Jiangxi province.

"This salt company seems to be a bit of a mess." A member said to the member next to Yan Xiuling.The gray-bearded congressman also nodded slightly and said: "That depends on how the company bought shares. But speaking of it, the Lianghuai Salt Field owes more than 250 million yuan in salt, and at least 150 million yuan is in Yangzhou. Those salt merchants in Yangzhou If they join in, won't they overwhelm us again?"

Before the councilors around him had time to speak, Li Zicheng gave them another shot in the arm, "...in order to better protect the development of the deep-sea fishing industry, the Marshal's Office decided to give the Lianghuai Salt Company overseas The right to lease or purchase land to set up salt farms. For example, in Jeju Island, Ryukyu, and Taiwan Islands, there are tidal flats suitable for drying salt. Sublease or sell to Lianghuai Salt Company.

Considering that some areas do not have tidal grasslands, the Lianghuai Salt Industry Company can apply to the Marshal's Mansion as needed to purchase grasslands, forest land or excavate coal in the relevant areas, and the Marshal's Mansion will actively provide assistance. "

The councilors in the hall suddenly went into an uproar, and the two Huai Salt Industry Companies suddenly changed from the new government office where the Marshal's Mansion wanted to take money from the salt merchants' pockets to a cornucopia full of hope.A congressman stood up and asked Li Zicheng cautiously: "Then how are the selling prices of these lands determined? What should the overseas states do if they refuse to sell the land?"

Li Zicheng thought for a while and said: "Speaking of this, I have to mention another industry, which is the shipbuilding industry. Although the shipbuilding industry in Huai'an is good, the ships it makes are still too thin to be suitable for sailing at sea.

Therefore, I plan to invest heavily in the shipbuilding industry in Huai'an, and build a strong warship that can be equipped with red cannons, modeled on Western plywood ships.These warships will defend the interests of the Marshal's Mansion at sea. According to the lessons Jiannu brought to Daming, those overseas states that refuse to have friendly exchanges with the Marshal's Mansion are obviously the enemies of the Marshal's Mansion.

Therefore, as long as the Lianghuai Salt Industry Company pays enough taxes, its interests are those of the Marshal's Mansion.And the tax dollars you pay will be turned into guns to protect your business.I thought it was a win-win.

The deep-sea fishing industry and warship manufacturing will provide more jobs for Huai'an shipyards, thereby driving the development of Huai'an's handicraft industry. Shipbuilding requires a lot of wood, hemp, cloth, tung oil, lime and steel, which in turn can promote Huai'an and the Yangtze River. , Huaihe River Basin, and the exchanges between various economic zones, thus bringing a large amount of materials, money and food to Huai'an.

As for the purchase of overseas land, it depends on the number of warships in the Marshal's Mansion, but it has little to do with you.Marshal Du's Mansion has shares in Lianghuai Salt Industry Company, so it will not give too high a price.However, if there are gold and silver mines on the land purchased by the company, they must pay 20% of the tax and sell the gold to the Ministry of Finance. Other minerals are given a 30-year tax-free period. Will recognize the company's mining rights..."

The councilors around Yan Xiuling were a little stunned, and someone couldn't help but said: "Gold and silver mines can also be mined? Then wouldn't it be safe to make a profit by investing in a salt company? Even if you can't find gold and silver mines, you can get rich if you get a copper mine." ah."