After Li You left the governor's office, Yang Futai suddenly realized when he "examined himself three times a day" that Li You had the intention to rectify the transportation department and the salt merchants from the very beginning! He just pretended to refuse and in the end seemed to compromise.
He reluctantly took over because of his huge face.
Returning to the Yazhong, facing the puzzled staff, Mr. Li impassionedly made a declaration of ability, "At first I did not want to be the envoy to clean up the salt affairs, but since I have been entrusted with the task by the imperial court, I have no choice but to shoulder the responsibility! Leave your name behind when you pass.
The flying geese leave behind their voices, and the dead leopards leave their skins. I have never been a person who has nothing to do with my corpse. No matter what kind of official position or what kind of errand, I always do it with great vigor! When I meet my classmates from the same hometown and the same year, I will pass on these words of this official.
go out."
Master Cui, whom he has known for the longest time, admired him and thought of a prefix - no matter what kind of boss he is.
It is said that after the Governor's Yamen Summit, Ding Yunshi and Gao Yuntong returned to the Yunsi Yamen Office, immediately deployed and mobilized all officials, actively carried out self-examination and cleanup, and comprehensively started preventive work, setting off a fire prevention, theft prevention and Li You riot.
If Yang Futai is in charge of organizing the affairs, he can also talk about the rules of the world and don't be too nervous. But if Li You directly intervenes, the situation is a bit complicated. Ding Yunshi and Gao Yuntong have never pinned their hopes on Li You.
Above those who follow the rules.
In particular, Mr. Li obviously has bad intentions. It is very possible that he received some instructions from his backers in the DPRK and came to deliberately cause trouble.
However, the Yunsi Yamen, which has been tested for a long time, is still very confident. The salt law is rectified every few years, and they are veterans of the investigation. No matter how smart Li You is, he will not be able to find any big loopholes in a short time.
The most you can do is sell him a few flaws and get him to do business.
As for Jin Wanwan's trafficking in huge amounts of residual salt, Ding Yunshi was not too nervous. He believed that Jin Wanwan would not be stupid enough to seek death, so he fully revealed the inside story to Li You. Secondly, the main reason for this matter was
The final settlement of Nanjing's responsibility must be discussed privately by the leaders of all parties and will not be dealt with publicly.
All parties related to the salt matter looked at Mr. Li's court with visible and invisible eyes, until their eyes were sore as they stared at it, but Mr. Li never made any move against Yun Si.
On the fourth day of March, the Tongzhi Branch Office of Yangzhou Prefecture issued a notice stating that in accordance with the imperial edict and the decree of Governor Jun, in order to rectify the salt law, all salt merchants would be summoned to the Tongzhi Office on the sixth day of March. Those who failed to do so would be responsible for the consequences.
Ding Yunji, who got the news immediately, was puzzled. Li You's key target should be the Salt Transportation Department, but why did he summon the salt merchants with such fanfare? Which salt merchant dared to expose the illegal activities of the Salt Transportation Department?
After the announcement, Mr. Li went to inspect the palace construction site. After intensive construction, the construction of the palace is now coming to an end and will be completed in just one day. Fortunately, the design is pastoral, with real rice fields, wheat fields, cotton and rapeseed.
….Compared with rockeries and flowing water, flower and bird gardens are much less troublesome.
Standing on the edge of the field ridge, Mr. Li looked at a field of spring flowers that were about to mature, thinking about whether to harvest winter wheat or not before the emperor arrived.
"Wonderful son-in-law!" someone shouted, and he didn't have to look back to know that it was a millionaire.
Li You threw down the wheat ears in his hand and asked Mr. Jin, "What are you doing here?"
"Two things." Jin Wanwan knew that although his son-in-law liked to go around in circles when talking to others, he was impatient with others going around in circles with him, so he got straight to the point: "The first thing is that I have a happy event. I want to take a concubine and ask for a good husband-in-law.
Support."
Li You felt funny, "I heard that in the past ten years, in order to have a son, you have married a new one every spring. Is it true? You are already over 100 years old, so don't waste yourself."
"Several old gentlemen have seen this this year, and it definitely looks like a good man to have many children. We also invited five eminent monks and four Taoist immortals to practice the method, and also went to Nanjing to invite Western monks to perform the power. What is the name of the magic blessing?
.”
Li You burst out laughing and asked: "Do you believe these people who are pretending to be clever and tricking people into cheating money? There are only two more concubines in these years."
Jin Wanwan said awkwardly: "I don't have much money, so I have to give it a try. Maybe it will work."
Talking about the second thing, "You made a notice, and colleagues in the industry started talking about it. The guild asked me to come and ask for a favor from my virtuous son-in-law. I told everyone not to gather in your yamen. How about moving to another place?"
"I have been ordered to rectify the salt law and summon salt merchants for questioning. How dare I bargain? The government office is not like a dragon's pond and a tiger's den!" Li You snorted coldly.
Jin Wanwan smiled bitterly, "This... is really a dragon's den and a tiger's den. There are rumors that you are going to set up the White Tiger Hall. The colleagues in the industry regard it as a scary road. No one except me would dare to go there. But they are worried about offending you, so the colleagues
Please change the venue to Xin'an Hall for a little peace of mind."
"Then let's go to the Xin'an Guild Hall. It's different in every way." Li You said nothing.
Jin Wanwan thought for a while and couldn't help but said: "The guild is newly established, the colleagues in the industry are very interested, and their morale is strong. They are currently sharing the same hatred with the enemy. You..."
It was Li You who instigated Jin Wanwan to instigate fellow salt merchants to form a guild and open it to the outside world. However, Jin Wanwan didn't understand what Li You wanted to do. He also asked him not to compete for the position of the guild leader, as if he was trying to make himself stronger for no reason.
enemy.
Li You pretended to be mysterious and said: "I'm not going to do anything but let you big businessmen have a taste of power."
On the sixth day of March, the Xin'an guild hall was crowded with people, and more than 300 salt merchants came, including servants and bearers, and the guild hall was almost full.
Shenxing Hall has been changed into Gongdao Hall, which serves as the public meeting place of Yangzhou Salt Industry Association, but it cannot accommodate more than 300 people.
Therefore, the public seat reserved for Mr. Li was placed on the platform outside the house, and all the salt merchants, big and small, stood outside. The more powerful the big salt merchants were, the closer they were to the public seat, while the small salt merchants were on the outside.
Jin Wanwan stood in front and couldn't help but secretly sigh that his son-in-law had turned his hands to make clouds and rain several times. He didn't win much support among the salt merchants, but he had established his prestige with dignity.
With just a piece of paper, the salt industry colleagues in Yangzhou, no matter how big or small, who are accustomed to serving as masters, can come here to wait. In the past, only Ding Yunshi had this power.
Halfway through the application time, Mr. Li led dozens of people including his entourage, subordinate staff, and guards to the mansion, and sat down on the platform in front of Gongdao Hall to accept the worship of the crowd.
First, there was a roll call, and an official held a list and shouted out the names of each family, and those who were called answered. After more than three hundred people were counted, the official presented the list to Mr. Li and said: "Master, there are four
Home is not here yet!”
Li You took the list, picked up the pen in front of everyone, pondered for a moment, and casually erased the names of these four companies.
Putting down his pen, Li You scanned the audience, brewing some atmosphere, and said: "I have been ordered by the imperial court to rectify the salt law in Yangzhou. I have called you here today to do this!"
No one else spoke in the audience, so Li You continued: "I originally wanted to question you one by one today, ask you to tell your story, and report the illegal activities of the officials and colleagues in the transportation department, but I changed my mind after seeing you.
You have a large number of merchants, there are more than 300 merchants in Yangzhou alone, how can the government take care of them?"
"I learned that you established the Salt Industry Association a few days ago. There is a general manager and six major stewards who dare to be the first in the salt industry. I think this is a good idea."
"So I have an idea to select some big businessmen among you as leaders of the salt industry, responsible for dealing with the government, and call them general merchants! As for other small and medium-sized merchants, the government will not waste time to accompany them one by one. But
It’s not like giving up, it’s just that all small merchants are listed under the name of the general merchant, and all matters such as payment of fees, temperament, etc. will be managed by the general merchant. If there is anything, the government will only ask the chief merchant.”
"In this way, the government only deals with a few general merchants, and it no longer has to deal with too many details, complicated documents, and paperwork, which frees up a lot of energy! In my opinion, the Salt Industry Association has just the right thing. The general manager and stewards can all serve as general merchants.
And rely on the guild to act and take care of other small businesses."
Everyone originally thought that Mr. Li was being picky and nitpicking. The several attempts to rectify the salt law in the past years were nothing more than a formality. They did not expect that Mr. Li would talk about the guild and some "general merchant".
After finishing, everyone was shocked.
It can be said that Mr. Li's few words set off a storm in the hearts of more than 300 people in the venue. Even those who are slow-minded and can't figure out the consequences at the moment can know that this is definitely a disruptive event in the salt industry.
It turns out that there are more than 300 salt merchants. Although some are large and some are small, they are not subordinate to each other. They are only related by the clan relationships of Huizhou folks. Even if each salt merchant is as small as a thousand-year-old, it is still independent.
They are dealing with the government transportation department and are not dependent on other merchants. Although it may be more difficult for such small salt merchants to deal with the government.
The guild and "general merchant" proposed by Mr. Li are equivalent to the government designating a number of large merchants to unite as a guild to act as agents for some salt industry affairs, and close the channels for small and medium-sized salt merchants to communicate directly with the government. From now on, small and medium-sized salt merchants can only
Depend on the big salt merchants and accept the management and agency of the big salt merchants.
To put it simply, the government grants certain agency powers to the association and the general merchant, allowing the general merchant to manage the industry. This reduces the trivial affairs that the government faces with a large number of small and medium-sized salt merchants.
For example, when claiming salt and seizing the salt tax, the Transportation Bureau can directly give the amount of salt to the guild. The major general merchants of the guild will allocate the salt tax to the small merchants under their names and collect the relevant salt tax on their behalf. Finally, the Salt Transportation Department will transfer the salt tax to the guild.
The annual tasks are completed when the merchants are gathered together. Of course, if something goes wrong, it is the chief merchant who will be held accountable by the government.
If Mr. Li's vision is followed, the current structure of Yangzhou's salt industry will change from a dual structure of transportation department and salt merchants to a three-layer structure of transportation department, guild, general merchant, and small merchants.
Everyone was shocked and their hearts were in turmoil. At this time, only a handful of elites could calmly think about the pros and cons.
Everyone else quickly considered whether this matter was good or bad for them and whether they could become the general manager. Only Jin Wanwan noticed Li You's true intention.
He immediately realized that although the general merchant with semi-official business status could be recommended by the salt merchants, who would ultimately endorse or approve it was the key. Li You would almost certainly give this power to the mysterious figure behind him.
.
To be able to discover this, maybe Jin Wanwan has been hanging out with his cheap son-in-law for a long time, and his ideological level has gradually improved and his horizons have broadened; maybe Jin Wanwan knows that with his son-in-law here, he will definitely not suffer a loss, as a general businessman
You can't run away, so you can be noble, cool, sober and calm, and have the leisure to think wildly.
