The "predictions" Qin Dewei said to Emperor Jiajing are not predictions. Many of them are facts that happened in another time and space history.
When the Kaizhong Law was implemented in the early Ming Dynasty, many salt merchants were from Shanxi and Shaanxi. These people completed the transfer of wealth between the north and the south by farming in border towns in exchange for salt in the Huaihe River.
After the Kai Zhong Law was abolished, those who were near the water came first. In the Lianghuai salt industry, the share of southerners was getting larger and larger.
After that, Huizhou merchants with strong capital gradually became the main body of salt merchants in Huaihe and Huaihe Rivers, and gathered in Yangzhou, forming the historical symbol of "Yangzhou Salt Merchants", which lasted until the Qing Dynasty.
In the current sixteenth year of Jiajing, the momentum mentioned above is still in the process of development.
What Qin Dewei wants to do is to reverse this trend and let the salt industry wealth continue to subsidize the northern border towns and turn it into border town supplies.
After a heated debate, Qin Dewei clearly gained the upper hand.
There was the "sacred will" of Emperor Taizu and Emperor Gao in the past, and the "deterrence" of the heavens in the future. Who can refute it?
However, there are still some people who are more objective and still have doubts about technical issues: "The folding method can enable Taicang to collect hundreds of thousands of silver taels per year. If it is changed back to the opening method, it will definitely be too late to grow grain this year.
So it will take at least two years for it to take effect. The previous salt imports have to be disposed of, and the treasury’s silver expenditure cannot be stopped during this period. What should we do?”
Qin Dewei said unceremoniously: "Kill Zhang Yanling! Then ransack the Zhang family! I guess it won't be a problem to steal hundreds of thousands of taels. It won't be able to make up for the shortfall in the past two years."
Everyone: ""
There is a vague illusion that Qin Dewei is more active in confiscating the Zhang family than the emperor. Whenever he needs money, he will noisy and confiscate the Zhang family...
The emperor was afraid of being accused of coveting the Zhang family's wealth, so he never raided the Zhang family, but kept Zhang Yanling in prison.
Of course, everyone now knows that the main purpose of the emperor's visit to the Zhang family was indeed political, in order to blackmail the Queen Mother Zhang.
As for the wealth of the Zhang family, the richest man in the capital,
Emperor Jiajing also looked at Qin Dewei in astonishment. Among all the ministers, he felt that Qin Dewei was the most active in raiding the Zhang family. Was it to please himself?
Qin Dewei is very calm and selfless in his heart!
Now that the Zhang family has been confiscated, some of it can still be used in state affairs. If it takes a few years, I'm afraid it will all be used to cultivate immortality.
However, any major policy shift or adjustment cannot be achieved overnight, and decisions cannot be made at once.
Therefore, after the heated debate in the Wenhua Hall, Emperor Jiajing did not express his position on the spot, and they dispersed near noon.
Everyone walked out of the palace in twos and threes. Academicians Zhang and Qin still walked together, talking as they walked.
Academician Zhang felt very relieved and sighed: "It's not easy. You finally know how to do something serious."
Everyone carried the sedan chair, and Qin Dewei also responded with dignity: "It's all taught well by the teacher."
After all, Teacher Zhang has held the title of Right Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Rites, and is no longer a member of the Imperial Academy. He must be given the respect he deserves.
Of course, teachers can always raise problems with students. Xueshi Zhang then criticized: "The only drawback is, why do you have to compete with Cai Ang?
The bet you mentioned is so childish and unnecessary! How can such a childish thing happen in court?"
What Teacher Zhang said is what Qin Dewei just said to the emperor, please check whether Cai Ang has any relatives or slaves who run the salt industry in Lianghuai.
If so, punish Cai Ang; if not, punish Qin Dewei.
Academician Zhang is not worried about Cai Ang, his opponent, but worried about Qin Dewei playing with fire and burning himself:
"Are you sure that Cai Ang must be involved with the salt merchant? If nothing is found and His Majesty becomes more serious again, won't you suffer the consequences instead?"
Qin Dewei smiled and said: "Teacher, tell me first, will your Majesty go to secretly investigate Cai Ang?"
Academician Zhang said without hesitation: "Definitely!"
Based on Emperor Jiajing's suspicious character, Qin Dewei raised this mysterious topic and would definitely find out.
It's just that the method may not be open to the public and it may be conducted secretly.
Qin Dewei said nonchalantly: "That's fine. As long as Your Majesty is willing to investigate, the result is not important."
Academician Zhang couldn't understand it again.
Academician Qin could only explain a few words briefly: "As the saying goes, everything is difficult at the beginning. When doing anything, the first step is often the most difficult to take.
As long as His Majesty has the intention to check whether there is any problem with Cai Ang, it is equivalent to taking the first step unknowingly! With the first step, there will be a chain reaction!"
Zhang Xueshi sneered and said: "But His Majesty will also check you!"
Qin Dewei was stunned, this was indeed very possible.
Then he patted his chest and said, "Student, when I was in Nanjing, I punched Western merchants and kicked Hui merchants, so I really have a clear conscience when it comes to business relations!"
So Zhang Xueshi continued to sneer: "You are an official and open a bank, so what business connections do you need? What if His Majesty thinks that your bank is good?"
Qin Dewei replied consciously: "Then I will hand over the bank to the state!"
Bachelor Zhang: ""
Qin Dewei saw that Master Zhang still couldn't understand, so he took the initiative to explain: "Actually, I am not interested in money. Wealth is just a number."
Teacher Zhang suddenly had bright eyes: "So you want to open a bank branch in Yangzhou or Huai'an? I'm afraid that there will be a lot of silver exchanges between Huaihe and the northwest in the future?"
Qin Dewei said calmly: "Hahahaha, if it is to promote the economic development of Ming Dynasty, it is not impossible to consider doing this.
But it’s very difficult and needs to be combined with Kaibian Market. Let’s look at it later.”
Opening a border market? Trading with the Tartars, who have been feuding for two hundred years? Teacher Zhang was stunned and speechless. This unscrupulous disciple always makes people unable to understand.
Emperor Jiajing returned to Qianqing Palace in the evening, and Eunuch Qin, the eunuch of the imperial horse supervisor and the admiral of Dongchang, came over to say hello.
Thinking of what happened at the Wenhua Palace in the daytime, Emperor Jiajing said without hesitation: "Go and investigate secretly. There are two Huai salt merchants among the relatives of the scholar Cai Ang."
This is what Dongchang should do, and Eunuch Qin agreed to it quickly, but he didn't understand the background of this investigation.
Of course, Eunuch Qin was not stupid enough to ask the emperor directly. After he retired, he asked some people to inquire and found out about the debate in the Wenhua Palace.
Then the Qin eunuch summoned Lu Bing, the commander of the Jinyi Guards, and asked, "If you want to investigate the relationship between officials in the capital and Huaiyan, how should you do it?"
As a governor of Dongchang, how to figure out the emperor's heart is a science.
Sometimes if you do too much, it is called "being good at making decisions"; sometimes if you do too much, it is called "wanting to be ahead of the leader".
Eunuch Qin believed that although the emperor only ordered to "inspect Cai Ang", based on the debate at the Wenhua Palace, he could make a conclusion that what the emperor was really interested in was the relationship between officials from the Huaiyan production area and Huaiyan.
So there is no problem in checking more people, but how should we check so many officials?
Lu Bing was also a clever person, and he immediately came up with an idea: "Make a list of officials from the two prefectures in the middle of Beijing and Jiangbei, and then send people to spy on each house.
However, any house that is shabby and small must belong to a poor family, so don’t worry about it for the time being.
Then we will focus on the officials in the mansion and conduct further careful inspections according to their level of luxury."
This was a good idea, so Qin Eunuch Dayue asked Lu Bing to do it.
After that, Lu Bing personally took people to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, signed up as Jinyiwei to arrest people, inspected the books, copied a list, and then reported the list to Eunuch Qin.
Eunuch Qin flipped through the list and saw a person on the first page: Zeng Xian, Jiangdu County, Yangzhou Prefecture.