Is it okay to rely on the words of the court officials?
This is obviously not possible. If the rhetoric was effective, not to mention the small Xujiazhuang, even the rogue bandits from the mountains and Shaanxi to Henan, or the slave Tatars outside the customs, would have been wiped out n times by their rhetoric.
This time the emperor clearly sided with Xu Jiazhuang, not because of Xu Jiazhuang's reasoning. The video evidence provided by Xu Jiazhuang could be found in too many places. There were hundreds of civil servants who had never lost in the power of words.
There are many ways to refute it, even if you shoot 10,000 videos, it will be useless.
But the first move is too powerful.
The most fundamental ones are 300,000 silver dollars and 8,000 stones of top-quality snow salt every year. These real benefits play a decisive role.
If another conflict of interest breaks out with Xujiazhuang in the future, as long as a bad person files a complaint first, takes advantage of three points, and then bribes with some benefits to please the emperor, Xujiazhuang will basically be in an invincible position, no matter how crazy the civil servants are to impeach him.
, verbal attacks are probably ineffective and cannot shake the emperor's determination.
The style of play has completely changed.
what to do?
In a private place, many important civil servants gathered together to discuss.
"Your Majesty is now greedy for money and good things. The great sect has forgotten the teachings of the sages. It is sad. If you want to make your Majesty stop at the brink and change your mind, you can only use unconventional means and try to lure him with benefits. Since Xujiazhuang gives your Majesty 50 yuan every year
If the salt tax is 10,000 taels, then we will double it and give one million taels to Your Majesty. If we give more, Your Majesty will come back to us and will never be bewitched by the monsters in Xujiazhuang again." The minister said in a sinister voice.
.
"One million taels per year, where do we get so much money?" Another minister was puzzled.
"Of course, let the Yangzhou salt merchants pay. These salt merchants are as rich as the rest of the country and live a luxurious life better than me. If they don't pay, who will pay? One million taels a year, which is only nine oxen and a hair ear. They will definitely be able to get it, and
We only need to persuade His Majesty to deal with Xujiazhuang, and when the imperial army takes over the harbor city and hands over the salt drying ponds to the salt merchants, and has mastered commercial goods such as snow salt, why worry about not being able to make a fortune every day?" said another old man.
"This plan is very clever. As long as Xujiazhuang can be destroyed, all expenses will be borne by Xujiazhuang in the end. And the one million taels of annual income increased by the imperial court, as long as it enters the Ministry of Household Affairs, it is equivalent to entering our pockets, even if it cannot be intercepted all
, I can swallow most of it, and the days to come will be better and better." The man laughed.
"I will make a report together tomorrow to persuade His Majesty to change his mind and send someone else to do the work of Jiangnan officials and Yangzhou salt merchants, and ask them to obediently spend one million taels every year. Otherwise, we can't help them. Now we can only do it by spending money.
Better than Xujiazhuang!"
…
soon.
Learning from the previous failures, the ministers and officials came forward one after another.
This time they did not repeat the clichés, but spent real money and offered actual benefits.
An annual salt tax of one million taels.
"Your Majesty, the monopoly of Daming Salt Industry in the hands of private industries like Xujiazhuang is particularly dangerous. It is better to give Xujiazhuang some compensation, take the salt factory in Harbor City into government ownership, and then hand over the snow salt produced to Yangzhou salt merchants
By operating sales, the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people in the Ming Dynasty were preserved. It not only increased the income of the court, but also stabilized the people's hearts and prevented greater chaos. This is the best of all three strategies." Cabinet minister.
Wu Zongda said.
"Yes, Your Majesty, five hundred thousand taels per year is too little. It is a drop in the bucket in the Ming Dynasty. At least one million taels!"
"Your Majesty, it doesn't matter if Xujiazhuang doesn't want to hand over the salt factory. It must either pay a million taels of salt tax every year, or the court will attack with heavy troops. The huge profits from the salt industry must not fall into private hands."
"We have no selfish motives at all. We are all thinking about your Majesty and the interests of Ming Dynasty!"
this……
Faced with so many ministers’ suggestions and advice.
Chongzhen Zhu Youjian, who originally wanted to turn the story over, couldn't help but hesitate again.
Because what these ministers said seems to make sense.
And compared with the annual salt tax of 500,000 taels, of course one million taels per year is more delicious.
Since Yangzhou salt merchants are willing to pay a million taels of salt tax every year, why can’t Xujiazhuang pay it?
With the huge profits from the salt industry, the annual salt tax is only 500,000 taels. This is really too little, and it can hardly do anything major. You must know that just passing the Ningjin Defense Line consumes more than 4 million taels of silver every year. The Nine-Front Army
The town also owed too much food and wages, and rebellions over wages occurred every year. Relying on the small amount of money, food and materials provided by Xujiazhuang would not be able to solve the problem at all, not even to alleviate it.
How about returning the salt industry to Yangzhou salt merchants, or asking Xujiazhuang to add more money?
Shaken.
The shortcomings of Zhu Youjian's character were exposed again. After being slightly influenced by the civil servants, he was led astray, and he almost wanted to overturn the previous decision.
However, he was not so stupid yet. How could he not guess the little thoughts of the civil servants? They were just to target Xujiazhuang. For this reason, they messed up the most important place in the heart of the Ming Dynasty and did not hesitate to ruin the overall situation. They kept saying it was for the sake of the Ming Dynasty.
, in fact, it is for themselves.
Therefore, he summoned his most trusted treasure, Fang Yizhi, overnight, and asked him what he should do?
He also asked vaguely whether the increase in the salt tax to one million taels per year would be a big problem for Xujiazhuang?
"Xujiazhuang is the richest in the world, so the annual salt tax of one million taels is certainly not a big problem."
Fang Yizhi said: "However, there were countless wealthy merchants in the Jiangnan area before the salt merchants. Many of them were as rich as the rest of the country. It was not a big deal to spend one hundred thousand taels or hundreds of thousands taels every year. But why was there a salt tax in the Jiangnan area?
, tea, and commercial taxes have been declining year after year instead of increasing year by year? If Xujiazhuang had not intervened in the salt industry this time, would the civil servants easily promise that the salt merchants would agree to pay a salt tax of one million taels per year? "
"Won't."
Zhu Youjian shook his head, of course he understood such a simple truth.
"Businessmen are all selfish people. The Jiangnan dignitaries who serve as the umbrella of the businessmen will only stuff the benefits into their own pockets and live an extremely extravagant life. They will never take the initiative to hand over the money to the court. This time they felt it.
The threat of Xujiazhuang, a catfish has entered the fish tank. In order to deal with Xujiazhuang, they are willing to pay some price. As long as the threat of Xujiazhuang no longer exists, they will return to their old ways, evade taxes, and the court's tax revenue will decrease year by year. This is to be expected.
matter."
Zhu Youjian nodded repeatedly, yes, this is indeed the truth.
"His Majesty!"
Fang Yizhi bowed his hands and said: "Although I have stayed in Xujiazhuang for a period of time and am considered a native of Xujiazhuang, I am not biased towards Xujiazhuang. I want to consider the interests of His Majesty. The existence of this catfish in Xujiazhuang is very necessary."
Yes, the annual salt tax of 500,000 taels is also a relatively reasonable figure and complies with the 100% tax requirement. If Yangzhou businessmen want to compete with Xujiazhuang Snow Salt, they don’t have to use exclusive methods and can build a larger one.
For the salt making factory, Xujiazhuang is willing to provide technical support, and only needs to pay a salt tax of 500,000 taels per year. Fair competition can, on the one hand, lower the price of salt on the market;
Isn’t it a good thing to reduce the number of people and benefit all parties? Isn’t my plan better than the officials’ method of concealing evil intentions?”
"well!"
Zhu Youjian clapped his hands and praised repeatedly: "You are worthy of being my son. He is very considerate and far better than a group of civil servants and elders."
It's just that Fang Yizhi's method is certainly comprehensive and sound, and it is the best strategy. He can no longer agree with it. However, the Ming Dynasty is now in troubled times, and its finances are extremely difficult. What it needs is a way to get money quickly, and it may not be able to wait for the best strategy.
The implementation has been carried out.
What he needs now is either Xujiazhuang agreeing to increase the salt tax to one million taels per year, or collecting one million taels per year from Yangzhou salt merchants. The sooner the money arrives, the better. The situation in the Ming Dynasty, which is deteriorating day by day, is really
Can't wait any longer!
Fang Yizhi was surprised.
impatient.
He did not expect that the emperor was so impatient that he even considered swallowing poisonous pills. He even considered adopting the strategy of the ministers and officials even though he knew it was the plan.
He was so hungry for money that he was willing to take the risk even if it might cause dissatisfaction in Xujiazhuang.
"Your Majesty, if you are really short of money, you can find a way to borrow it, but you must not do this!"
Fang Yizhi had no choice but to say: "I have a good relationship with Master Xu of Xujiazhuang. We often treat him as brothers and have personal contacts. If your Majesty is in urgent need of money, I can act as an intermediary and borrow one or two million silver dollars with my humble face.
It won’t be too difficult!”
Before coming to the capital, Fang Yizhi had obtained many permissions granted to him by Xujiazhuang, including contacting the emperor to borrow money, for which he could act easily.
"Two million taels?"
Zhu Youjian's eyes lit up. Although it was borrowed money, it could indeed have an emergency effect and help alleviate some problems.