After the "accidental encounter" between Shen Yongmao and Gao Pragmatic, the situation in the court eased slightly in the next few days, and the emperor also had some reaction to this, and responded in a belated impeachment report from the south: "Old things have been settled for a long time.
There is no need to discuss it further. Kuang Hairui is in charge of Nancha, and you are now gathering for impeachment. What do you mean?"
After all, there was not only one Nanjing in the south of the Yangtze River. Some memorials arrived earlier and some arrived later. This was just an ordinary thing. It just happened that the two factions in the capital had reached a tacit agreement, but his memorial came up, so as not to be ignored by the emperor.
Such a warning.
The warning was quite good, at least it didn't offend the emperor and cause him to lose his official position. Speaking of which, this was also thanks to Shen Shixing's quickness in seeking peace. The emperor was pragmatic and did not react much, considering that the government needed to be stable.
, so he didn’t use the fury of thunder.
Since the government was stable, there was no need to delay the awarding of rewards. Both the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Household were headed by the Practical School, so it was easier for both parties to discuss the awarding of rewards. However, Liang Menglong was still a little unhappy about Li Chengliang's issue.
Liang Menglong believed that even if the imperial court was extremely tolerant towards its ministers, and Li Chengliang did have a nobleman named Ning Yuanbo, no matter how tolerant he was, he could not ignore rewards and punishments.
What is the nature of privately selling gunpowder to Chahar? At the very least, he is supporting the enemy! For such a big mistake, even if he is an honorable minister, he can only be punished lightly at most, but he must not be allowed to go unpunished, let alone
You can't deliberately cover it up for him.
From a theoretical point of view, Liang Menglong's point of view is completely correct, and Gao Pragmatic also agrees with it. A country cannot lack institutionalized rewards and punishments, otherwise chaos will sooner or later occur.
However, etiquette has authority and matters have priorities. Now is not the right time to punish Li Chengliang. This will cause the court to lose order instantly, and some of the steps that Gao Pragmatic has already set will be accidentally disrupted. What kind of variables will this cause?
Then even someone like Gao Pragmatic, who is good at analysis and deduction, can't say for sure.
Anyone who is good at analyzing and deducing and controlling the situation for a long time will definitely not be able to tolerate the development of things showing signs of getting out of control. The same goes for Gao Pragmatic, so he proposed a compromise plan.
The main meaning of this plan is that the reward will remain the same and Li Chengliang will not be investigated for the time being. However, the Ministry of War will not publicly confirm that he is innocent. Gao Pangshi sent people to quietly collect evidence and tried to find out the matter. If the evidence is sufficient, the court will wait for it in the future.
When the situation changes, choose a suitable opportunity to settle accounts with Li Cheng and Liang Qiuhou.
People who can't bear an overnight feud are not suitable for office. Anyone "within the system", regardless of his status, will definitely have someone or something that can make him endure temporarily. Wishful grudges are usually only suitable for desperadoes, and
Settle accounts after autumn is a routine operation for officials.
Liang Menglong also understood this truth, so after Gao Pingshi explained his words, although he was unwilling to do so, he finally agreed.
The final result was that Cao Yun's position remained unchanged but he was promoted to one rank, and was appointed as the Governor of the Right Army Governor's Mansion. He was rewarded with thirty taels of silver and given a red silk flying fish uniform. Ma Chengxun "contained meritorious service" and was promoted to the capital guard.
(Commander and Envoy Division of Shanxi Province) all commanded Tongzhi and were rewarded with 10 taels of silver; Zhang Wanbang defeated the enemy head-on and added his own guard (Datong Yanghewei) to command the envoy and was rewarded with 20 taels of silver... A group of people waited regardless of whether it was official or not
In the battle, almost everyone who participated in the expedition received merit and received rewards.
As for the lieutenants of the army, of course it depends on the number of heads. However, according to Gao Pragmatic's principle of leading troops, the meritorious service reported by Cao Yun this time is not based solely on the level of beheading of a person, but on the basis of low-level combat units (such as small units).
The Yuanyang Formation is actually a "class") to share the work.
As a result, there is no need for individuals to "make wealth", but the profits are distributed to more people. As for the specific rewards for each small combat unit, a system developed by Gao Pragmatic back then was also promoted by Cao Yu, that is, the unit
A secret ballot will be held within.
The specific method is that each person uses a copper coin as a seal, and the people on the distributed list are stamped with one to five copper coin seals respectively. In the end, those with more stamps have higher merits, and those with fewer stamps have lower merits. All voting forms are put in on the spot.
A ballot box. The superior officer will open the box in person after the voting is completed, and the votes will be counted publicly. The ballot box is not allowed to leave the public's sight during the process.
This method is generally fair. Although in some cases it may result in some people with good interpersonal relationships getting more "copper coins", Gao Pragmatic believes that this is understandable and tolerable: since he has good interpersonal relationships, it means that everyone
If you are willing to listen to him, it is normal for him to get more credit. After all... this is also a kind of prestige.
Cao Yu now considers himself a direct descendant of Gao Pragmatism, and of course he will closely follow the system created by Gao Pragmatism, so the reward this time will also be handled in this way.
Of course, he is very pragmatic and will not ask about these details. His main responsibility is to allocate money... Oh, allocate silver. Fortunately, the salt tax in Liaodong has increased this year. Although the reward is not low this time, it can still be dealt with.
By the way, this year's salt tax in Liaodong was actually paid by Gao Jingshi and the emperor, all of which came from the Liaonan salt works. Gao Jingshi always paid "heavy taxes" to prove his innocence, while the emperor paid it because he was not allowed to inscribe people.
It was practical, so it was paid at a high and pragmatic ratio. This also led to a result that made the emperor very dissatisfied.
It was not that he was dissatisfied with paying more taxes following Gao Pragmatic, but that the salt tax paid by the Liaodong Salt Farm this year actually reached 70% of that of Yangzhou, which in the eyes of the emperor was simply a mockery.
When did the scale of the Liaodong Salt Farm reach 70% of that of Yangzhou? Huaiyang is where salt merchants gather and is also the largest salt farm in the world. Even though the highly pragmatic Liaodong Salt Farm is expanding rapidly, the Yangzhou Salt Farm is still at least three times the size of Liaodong.
to four times. Even if Liaodong pays a higher rate, it should not be this ratio, so it is obvious that there is something fishy in the Huaiyang salt tax, a big fishy thing.
However, Gao Pragmatic did not express his position on this matter. Although the emperor was angry, he did not know where to intervene for a while. It was not impossible to use the "report card" of the Liaodong Salt Fields to blame the Lianghuaidu Salt Transfer Department and even the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs, but Zhu Yijun knew not
What's the use? Although the relevant people in charge will definitely plead guilty, they will also give a lot of reasons in the memorial to explain that they can only receive so much.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Gao Pragmatic wants to penetrate Nanjing, and one of his reasons is to take back the Ministry of Revenue’s management rights over the salt industry. It’s not that he particularly likes to seize power.
But he knew that without him to reform, the salt affairs problem of the Ming Dynasty would not be improved at all.
Now that he is the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, in the long run, it is impossible to rely on his family to pay taxes to keep the imperial court alive. The fundamental problems must be solved before the Ming Dynasty can recover. In the short term, the only way is to improve the health of the Ming Dynasty.
Only by raising revenue from the national treasury can we avoid causing another rebellion in the northwest in the past few years when we are extremely short of money.
As we all know, in the Ming Dynasty, in order to strengthen the control over the production and sales of the salt industry, there were Metropolitan Salt Transfer Departments and Salt Class Promotion Departments across the country. Each department had a relatively fixed scope of salt sales and published them on copper plates, which could not be changed without authorization.
Among the various salt-producing areas, the Lianghuai Salt Area ranks first in the country due to its large output, dense population, developed economy, and convenient transportation. Therefore, small changes within it may have a serious impact on the situation of the entire country.
The imperial court also appointed officials to the Lianghuai Salt District very frequently. This was not only because of the important position of the Lianghuai River in the national finance, but also showed that the marketing of Huaiyan salt in this area was not easy and often required the court's intervention. It depended on the three
Uncle Zhang Sijiao stayed in Yangzhou for a long time, so Gao Pragmatic knew very well that among the many factors affecting the salt trade in the Huaihe River, the most important and direct one was the prevalence of private salt sales.
What is private salt? Jing Xueqian, a salt affairs expert at the beginning of the Republic of China, once said: "What is private? For officials. What is official and what is private? No one knows, no one knows: there is tax for official, there is no tax.
For personal reasons."
In other words, illicit salt is salt that is not produced, transported and sold in accordance with national laws and regulations, especially salt that is not taxed and therefore cannot provide statutory fiscal and tax revenue to the country.
There was no distinction between official and private salt in the first place, but since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty implemented the official management of salt and iron, there has been so-called private salt from the perspective of the government.
After the mid-Tang Dynasty, the problem of illicit salt gradually became prominent and became a problem that subsequent dynasties could not get rid of. The trend of people selling illicit salt became more and more intense.
For example, Huang Chao, the leader of the rebel army in the late Tang Dynasty, engaged in smuggling; in the Song Dynasty, in Qianzhou in Jiangxi and Tingzhou in Fujian, "many people stole and sold Guangnan salt for profit."
He is a thief"; at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Zhang Shicheng "stealed Wuhui as a salt disciple, and started a small business as a peddler. Although the world was peaceful, it was not extinct."
After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang strictly implemented the law prohibiting smuggling and stipulated that "those who carry burdens will be sent to the army with a hundred sticks." Therefore, large-scale private smuggling activities in the private sector have been somewhat restrained.
However, after Xuande, "the salt ban was slightly relaxed, and there were more private traders." For example, in the tenth year of Xuande, he reported to the Ministry of Household Affairs: "The price of salt in the Huaihe River is low, and there are few merchants taking it. This is all because they are located in the home of a powerful military and defensive power."
, indulged the slave laborers, obstructed the salt law, went out privately to sell salt, and often ran hundreds of ships. They hijacked weapons and plundered wherever they went."
In the first year of Zhengtong, the imperial court appointed He Wenyuan, the right minister in the Ministry of Justice, Wang Zuo, the left minister in the Ministry of Household Affairs, and Zhu Yuyan, the right deputy minister of the Imperial Procuratorate, to supervise the salt courses of Lianghuai, Changlu, and Liangzhe respectively. It was also because "Lianghuai,
Changlu, the two Zhejiang salt transportation envoys and the salt department officials in various fields did not abide by the constitution, committed corruption, and allowed kitchen households to fry private goods;
There are those who secretly sell goods, some pretend to be rich and powerful, and there are those who sell them along the way; there are even those who gather ships according to their disciples, arrange weapons, and commit evil acts."
It can be seen from these two cases that as early as the Zhengtong period, the problem of illegal salt had been widespread across the country, and the prevalence of illegal salt had posed a threat to the imperial court's official salt sales system.
Although the Ming court was well aware of the prevalence of illegal salt sales, it had no effective countermeasures. In December of the third year of Zhengtong, the court had to order the censor to inspect the salt courses in Huaihe and Zhejiang provinces. Previously, it ordered the censor Yin Boring to go to Yangzhou Prefecture to supervise the salt class.
The Lianghuai salt class has been called back for a long time, but the disadvantages of frying and selling it privately and transporting it are very harmful."
It is also because of this that the post of Salt Patrol Censor was temporarily appointed by the imperial court and gradually became a permanent official position, which was "replaced according to patrol regulations." In addition, combined with these two cases of the imperial court appointing officials, it can be seen that the imperial court had already appointed officials at least three years before Zhengtong.
He Wenyuan and Yin Boring were appointed to supervise the Lianghuai Salt Class, but the problem has not been solved, and supervision still needs to be strengthened.
Based on this, Gao Pragmatic can make two speculations. One is that private salt in the Huaihe River has been piling up for a long time and cannot be solved overnight. Second, none of the officials sent in the early stage were able to complete the task, and some of them may be suspected of deliberately condoning the development of private salt.
.
However, judging from historical data, it is less feasible that in the early orthodox years when officialdom was still good, many censors continuously violated the wishes of the court and deliberately acted for personal gain, so the first speculation is more likely.
The seriousness and persistence of the problem of private salt in Huaihe and Huaihe Rivers has posed a serious threat to the imperial government's fiscal revenue, and further affected the border defense reserves. Therefore, the imperial court repeatedly stated the ban on private salt in the twelfth year of Zhengtong, the third year of Jingtai, and the third year of Chenghua.
, but still failed to achieve good results, and illegal salt trafficking is still intensifying.
Especially after the Salt Law was severely damaged in the second year of Chenghua, many private salts were sold across the border, and official salt could not be added, and the Salt Law was abolished, causing many disadvantages. According to Gao's pragmatic verification, the main private salts in the Lianghuai Salt District at that time were:
Two categories.
The first is Huai private salt, which is private salt flowing directly from the Lianghuai salt area. Part of this is that kitchen households privately sell the remaining salt in their hands to private merchants or salt lords, who then sell it under the guise of official seals.
Although the imperial court at that time provided for the purchase of surplus salt, the kitchen households in remote areas were often not favored by salt merchants and were rarely willing to go all the way to collect it. In this case, the only option was to sell it to private traders or salt lords.
On the other hand, after the implementation of the system of collecting silver for salt classes, kitchen households were required to sell salt in exchange for silver when paying salt taxes, which led to an increase in private frying and selling. Especially in years of disaster, kitchen households were often "stuck for food and clothing and sold illegally."
"Introducing salt to relieve emergencies." - See what this looks like? Yes, it's like the poor people who were forced to sell grain to pay taxes after Zhang Juzheng forcibly promoted the whip method in Shaanxi and other places.
However, Gao Pragmatic knew in his heart that Zaohu's private frying and selling was not for the purpose of deliberately confronting the imperial salt law, but more often as a last resort. Moreover, because the scale of their smuggling was small and the quantity of each transaction was not large,
In fact, the impact on the salt law was not very strong, and it only appeared in coastal salt fields and surrounding areas.
The other part is the outflow of official salt. For example, in the third year of Chenghua, the Criminal Division reported to Zuo Xian: "Since the Yi Zheng arrived in Nanjing, along the river, from Wuhu to Huguang, Jiangxi and other places, there were salt disciples driving large ships covering the ocean.
They looted and plundered wantonly. Although there were officers such as the general patrolling the river, they often took advantage of the money." This is an example of a group of salt lords forming a gang to rob officials of salt.
Another example is that in the second year of Jiajing's reign, "Eunuch Li Tan was traveling between Huaiyang and Huaiyang, carrying private salt vendrants in his boat to sell. Cheng Jinggui, who was patrolling the salt inspection, led his soldiers to search for it." This is an example of eunuchs participating in smuggling.
In addition, in the memorial to the Ministry of Household Affairs in the tenth year of Xuande's reign mentioned just now, there is also a saying that "the family of a powerful military and guard condoned servants, obstructed the salt law, and went out to sell hundreds of ships without permission."
This is an example of local tycoons and military guards selling goods for personal gain.
From this point of view, although the participants in the private sale of Huai salt are complex and have many different sources of private salt, they are all confrontations with the imperial salt policy outside of national law. They are the most serious in nature and occur in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.
In an economically important area, the impact on the Salt Law will naturally be more severe.
The second category of private salt sales is Lin private sales, that is, private salt from neighboring salt areas flowing into the Huai salt areas. Compared with private sales of Huai salt, Lin private sales far outperform in terms of quantity and duration.
From a geographical point of view, the Lianghuai Salt District is located in the middle of the Ming Dynasty. In addition, the price of Huaiyan salt is higher than that of neighboring salt areas (because the marketing area is rich), so all sides of Huaihe District are invaded by private salt from neighboring areas.
Gao Pangshi found out that when the salt ban was announced in the third year of Jingtai, the Ministry of Household Affairs stated in a memorial: "In recent years, private salt has been prevalent, and there are many traders. The official price of salt is low, but there are few official salt collectors. And as in Guangdong
Haibei Ertiji was the place where salt was carried out, and it meandered north and ended at Nanxiong. Today it even reaches Meiling, Yangjiaoshui and other places, and then crosses to Jiangxi and Huguang. To the east of Hedong, Shaanxi Yunsi was used for salt, and it meanders south and ends at Nanyang. Today
As far as Tongguan, Neixiang and other places, and beyond to Huguang and Xiangyang."
However, the Lianghuai salt area is not only affected by Guangdong Haibei salt and Hedong salt. In Jiangxi, after the three prefectures of Nan'an, Ganzhou, and Ji'an switched to Guangyan salt, "Guangyan salt flowed down the river, and its momentum was very convenient, so it was soaked in
In the counties of Yuan, Lin, Fu, and Rui, there are only a limited number of wise practitioners, but an infinite number of private traders."
In Huguang, in the west of Huai District, there is "Sichuan salt", which is often smuggled in Jingxiang counties. The Shu salt is more exquisite than the Huai salt.
Even though it is strictly prohibited, it cannot be stopped."
On the Yangzhou Canal line, "the ships coming from the north are mostly carrying illegal salt, and the ships returning with empty grains are even more so. There are hundreds of boats sailing through the pass. If we search for information, set fire to the stilts, or crowd in to resist arrest, it will be impossible."
Drink up."
Therefore, the neighboring countries that flowed into the Huaihe River area were not only large in area and large in number, but also as serious as those of the local gangsters. They had become widespread, and the salt courses of the imperial court were also greatly affected by this.
How much influence does it have? Taking Jiangxi as an example, Gao Pragmatic found the file: "First, Jiangxi Province sent 390,000 Huaiyan salt, and then Ganzhou, Nan'an, and Ji'an switched to Guangyan, but Nanchang and other nine
The government still sells 270,000 yuan of Huai salt. Now private traders are prevalent, and the boats and oars gather wherever they are.
For example, the three prefectures of Yuanzhou, Linjiang, and Ruizhou all eat Guangyan salt privately; the three prefectures of Fuzhou, Jianchang, and Guangxin eat Fu salt privately (Guangxin Prefecture belongs to the salt land of the two Zhejiang provinces, not the Huai District). So Huaiyan only has
A total of 160,000 yuan was spent. Within a few years, the national economy was in dire straits.
Governor Masen Shangshu Ji has reported the damage, and asked Xiajiang County to build a bridge and set up a pass to block the wide area, so as to benefit the private salt road and restore the original amount of Huai salt. It has been slightly increased to 470,000 yin."
Neighbors invaded the Huaihe District privately, which not only usurped the court's salt tax, but also made it difficult for Huaiyan salt to sell well. The Huaihe District was also related to the Nine-Border Reserve, which was obviously a thorn in the side of the court.
Although the imperial court divided part of the Huaihe area into other salt areas, the Huaihe salt area often took a step back and the neighbors were increasingly forced in. For example, in Jiangxi, "if there are no three prefectures, the whole province will be congested, and the whole Huaihe River will be sick." Therefore, "the three prefectures will be sick."
Without it, Huaiyan will never be able to compete with Guangzhou."
The result of Huaiyan's failure to compete with Guang was that the national economy was in dire straits, border wages could not be guaranteed, and national security was greatly threatened. If it had not been for the increase in port revenue after the Gao Gong reform, the Ming army would have been replaced in recent years.
It is impossible to pretend.
But illegal salt sales are so rampant, is it right to allow them to become poisonous? Since Gao Pragmatic has become the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, there is no room for his eyes to be full of mud and sand! It is the right time to take advantage of Nancha's power to seize the power to supervise salt.
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