Three hundred and forty-seven chapters rushed to Hongze Lake
Chapter 347 Rushing to Hongze Lake
Apart from rescuing Aunt Jin, Li You's purpose was of course not to arrest the young couple Gao Jun and Jin Huiniang with great fanfare. Firstly, the root of this matter was Mrs. Xie, and those two were just being used. Secondly, there was salt.
Yun Si protected him, so he couldn't break in and arrest people.
His desire to be a drunkard went around a few times, but finally landed on Jin Wanwan.
Jin Wanwan is the most special one among the big salt merchants in Yangzhou City. This is the conclusion Li You came to after summarizing all the information and digging out some clues from the Du family.
The special thing is not that Jin Wanwan sells 70,000 citations of official salt every year. Although this amount is huge, it is essentially no different from other salt merchants. But he actually has a huge private salt marketing system, and official salt also sells private salt.
Also selling, both are compatible.
Although other salt merchants hate illegal salt disrupting the market, and sometimes even take the initiative to hire people to crack down on illegal salt, it is not uncommon for salt merchants to secretly carry scattered illegal salt when transporting salt. However, they are not as organized as Jin Wanwan.
Large-scale trafficking of illegal salt.
It is said that such things would attract the hatred of colleagues in the salt industry, but Li You did not find any dissatisfaction among other salt merchants, as if they all had a default attitude. Moreover, the Salt Transportation Department did not ignore such a famous figure as Jin Wanwan.
ask.
How to explain? Li You felt that if Jin Wanwan's private salt business could achieve this level, it was not just his own business, but there must be some traces of the Salt Transportation Department in it. At least his in-law Gao Yun Tong couldn't run away.
Maybe Deposit Money is the agent of the Salt Transportation Department. If so, all the strange things above would not be surprising.
The Salt Transportation Department and Gang Shang jointly sell private salt? It sounds ridiculous, but private salt and private salt can easily become private property if you bring a private person.
Before she left, Mrs. Yu talked with Li You about some information about the salt field. There was a man in the Du family who was a fugitive from the salt field. According to him, his family of five was allocated 200,000 kilograms of boiled salt by the government every year. In fact, the output was
It often reaches 200,000 kilograms, and every household in the salt farm is like this.
The output of this family's 200,000 jins was official salt. Where did the remaining 70,000 to 80,000 jins go? Apparently they all became private salt. The planned output reported by Huaiyan in a year is 500 million jins. If calculated according to that ratio
, the illegal salt production that is not included in the plan is at least 200 million jins. If you don’t know it, you will be shocked when you calculate it. This is such a shocking figure...
Now, Li You has gradually formed an outline in his mind on how to assist the eldest princess (the emperor) in controlling the salt industry. It is absolutely unrealistic in Lianghuai to fundamentally shake the current prosperous Gangshang system.
Without so much capital by economic means, who in the world can compare with the Lianghuai salt merchants in terms of money? Not even the Shanxi merchants who have not carried forward their bank accounts in this era.
Using political means will make you look ugly, and the salt industry is the main source of revenue for the imperial treasury. It will cause shock and chaos for no reason. If it gets out of hand and becomes a mess, no one can bear the responsibility. By then, he, Li You, may be "used"
Thank you world".
So Mr. Li, who was entrusted by the eldest princess, once again cast his deep gaze on Mr. Jin, and this is where he started.
Private salt is illegal, but if His Highness Chitose can recruit Jin Wanwan, he can naturally make it legal in the name of the royal family. In fact, private salt has an internal name in the Jin Wanwan organization, called Yu Yan. As the name suggests, it is
The remaining salt other than official salt can be renamed royal salt after it is legalized.
The production and marketing of official salt implements the salt introduction system. The biggest feature is that the place of origin, output, sales area, and sales volume are all planned, and violations must not be exceeded. If the Jinwanbao can be included, the remaining salt may not necessarily need to be subject to the salt introduction system.
, a more flexible sales system can be adopted. This is called market adjustment...
Some officials may be surprised. Salt is an absolute necessity. It can be sold even if the salt introduction system is implemented. The legalization of surplus salt will at most fill the gap of the original private salt. How can the salt industry be controlled?
The reason is very simple. Legalization of surplus salt is equivalent to capital leverage. If any merchant does not obey the industry management of the Changzhu Salt Industry Association, he can transport the cheap surplus salt to his territory and carry out inhumane dumping.
Can he still sell his expensive salt? In a few years, his family will go bankrupt.
In fact, the large and small salt merchants in Yangzhou City are now afraid of Jin Wanwan, and this factor is also included. They are afraid that Jin Wanwan will be unhappy one day and ship private salt for dumping.
To put it bluntly, Jin Wanwan is the key figure in Li You's overall plan, which is also of great benefit to him. How can an upright and upright salt industry emperor be better off if he is shady?
It is said that Li You received an emergency edict and retreated with his officers and soldiers. Jin Yuanwai returned home from the Lianghuai Salt Transportation Department office full of worries. The more he thought about it, the more wrong he felt, and he felt like he had been tricked by his son-in-law again.
.
In the Yanyun Department Office, Ding Yunshi and Gao Yuntong continued to talk about what happened today. Ding Yunshi asked a few questions in an understatement, and Gao Yuntong was sweating.
"Does Li You have a strong enough backing?"
"have."
"Is Li You friendly to the Salt Transport Department?"
“Not good.”
"Did Li You and the Yanyun Secretary have no grievances in the past?"
"There is no grudge."
"Then where does Li You's unfriendly attitude towards the Salt Transportation Department come from?"
"It can only come from his background position."
"Which son-in-law is closer to the in-laws?"
"son in law."
"Are Li You and the people behind him worthy of Jin Wanwan's trust?"
"worth."
"Is Jin Wanwan tempted to seek refuge with them?"
"Hard to say."
"Is Jin Wanwan still worthy of your trust now?"
"There should be no problem...it's hard to say."
"Involved in family property disputes and inexplicable poisoning incidents, will Jin Wanwan still trust you completely?"
"Can not be sure."
"If Jin Wanwan becomes suspicious of you, do you still dare to continue to trust him?"
"Don't dare."
"If Jin Wanwan feels that you don't trust him, will he become even more alienated?"
"meeting."
"Very good, Li You's purpose of coming to our Yun Division today to show off his power has been achieved!" Ding Yunshi gritted his teeth and said, "If we are suspicious of each other, how can we continue a business that makes a profit of five to six hundred thousand taels a year? In the past,
Jin Wanwan had no choice, but now he has a good son-in-law!"
Without waiting for Gao Yun to express his views, Ding Yun made another conclusion: "You will know the success when you see the slightest thing. You will know the autumn when a leaf falls. The wind rises at the end of the green duckweed! If you look at Li You, you will know that the storm is coming."
"
Li You returned to the county government office and received the imperial edict. Although he was slightly grateful that the sudden and urgent edict dragged him out of the dilemma in front of the Yunsi Yamen, he still couldn't help but curse a few words.
The Huanghuai flood emergency is indeed a serious matter, but why did countless officials from Jiangbei prefectures and counties dispatch Jiangdu County, which is the most burdensome, to fight the floods! Is this the price of celebrity?
It's estimated that it will take a month and a half to get back here.
The edict ordered him to set off immediately. Master Li actually didn't have much time to express his feelings. He hurriedly settled the family affairs and focused on appeasing Aunt Jin.
Then he went to Qianya and gathered together the county magistrate, the chief registrar and the four masters to explain the affairs.
Li You handed over the big seal to Master Zhuang, who had the most experience in yamen struggles, and arranged: "For all county affairs, the Prime Minister of Guo County will seal the seal on his behalf, and Master Zhuang is responsible for using the seal. I hope that the two of you will work together and live up to your duties."
Tuo!"
The imperial edict only ordered Li You to obey the dispatches of the governor's Yamen, while the attached governor's Yamen's writing ordered Li You to go directly to Sizhou to take charge of river affairs in the southern part of Hongze Lake.
At the same time, there was also a long-awaited reply from Li You. The superiors agreed to Mr. Li's plan to replace the anti-smuggling patrol with battalions. However, Li You did not have time to arrange it himself, so he had to leave the matter to General Wu Xianhan.
The arrangement was carried out according to the predetermined plan. A sentinel force was also deployed, taking turns patrolling outside several doors of the Salt Transportation Department Office in the name of hunting down fugitives as a deterrent.
In addition, Mr. Li selected a group of strong and good soldiers from the camp as temporary soldiers and rushed to the north of Hongze Lake together.
In fact, Governor Fengyang was very dissatisfied with the fact that the imperial court sent Li You to assist the inspection of river affairs. The young man said nothing but failed to do his job. The flood season is urgent, and the water conditions of the Huanghuai River are extremely complicated. Is flood control and disaster relief child's play?
But there was no choice but to assign Li You to the Hongze-Hunan line, which was the least dangerous and least important in the entire Huanghuai waters.
As we all know, the most critical flood conditions in the Huanghuai area are the Huaihe River and the Qingjiang estuary where Hongze Lake enters the Yellow River, followed by the upper and lower reaches of the Yellow River from the Huaihe River, and the northern end of Hongze Lake, which is close to the canal and Huai'an Prefecture. Hongze Hunan
The end is relatively unimportant compared to the previous ones.
Mr. Li and his soldiers left the prosperous and comfortable Yangzhou City, went north along the canal, passed Gaoyou Prefecture, entered Baoying territory, then turned west along the Cha River, and finally entered the waters of Hongze Lake.
Because he traveled day and night, Li You stood on the Gaojia Weir on the eastern embankment of Hongze Lake only five days later.
Here I want to explain the relationship between the Huaihe River, the Yellow River, and Hongze Lake. Since the Yellow River took the Huaihe River and entered the sea, the original lower reaches of the Huaihe River have become the lowest reaches of the Yellow River.
Because the Yellow River is strong and the Huaihe River is weak, in order to prevent the Huaihe River from losing its drainage channel from causing trouble to the canal in the north of the Yangtze River, and to guide the water from the Huaihe River into the Yellow River, Pan Jixun, a famous water control official during the Jiajing and Wanli years, built a hundred-year-long north-south river in the southwest of Huai'an Prefecture after two construction projects.
The dyke here is built high at Jiayan to block the water of the Huaihe River.
The water of the Huaihe River accumulated under Gaojiayan, forming Hongze Lake. Therefore, Hongze Lake is the only artificial lake among the great lakes of the Kingdom of China, and Gaojiayan became the east embankment of Hongze Lake. As the Huaihe River water continues
With the accumulation of water, the area of Hongze Lake has continued to expand. It can be said that the lower reaches of the Huaihe River today are Hongze Lake.
After the eastward path of the Huaihe River water was blocked by Gaojiayan to form Hongze Lake, the water regime naturally spread to the north and south. The southern end of Hongze Lake expanded to the boundary of Sizhou in Fengyang Prefecture, and the northern end connected with the Yellow River and flowed into the Yellow River.
The water control strategy of "diverting the Huaihe River to flood the Huangbao Canal" was realized. Of course, when the Yellow River breaks out in floods, it often flows back into Hongze Lake.
Having said a lot, it can be seen that the most important task of flood control in Hongze Lake is only one thing. In order to protect the canal, the lifeline of the imperial court, from flooding, it is necessary to guard the Gaojia Weir on the east embankment of Hongze Lake, which is where Mr. Li is standing now.
Location.
Fortunately, Hongze Lake is tilted from northeast to southwest on the land of Jiangbei, and the northern end almost intersects with the canal. However, the southern end of Hongze Lake that Li You is responsible for is far away from the canal, and there are many buffer lakes in the middle, so it is relatively less