New Shun 1730

The salt merchants and salt officials looked at each other and thought that the person coming was not good.

Or he is really ready to fight to the death.

Or he is ready to ask for a price. If he asks like this, he may not be able to spend hundreds of thousands taels.

The method of labeling is too skillful. When other officials ask for bribes, the most they can label is sabotaging the salt policy. This one directly labels a businessman as interfering in politics...

Who dares to accept this hat?

Zheng Yuji swallowed quietly, moistened his dry throat, and forced out a smile: "The Duke's words are serious. How dare I have such thoughts? I'm just a small businessman, don't scare us, Duke. "

"It's just that the salt policy is related to the salt consumption of millions of people, and it is not a trivial matter. Although we have benefited from it, but when it comes to opposing the salt policy, we are mainly worried that the reform will lead to people's livelihood and loss of the court's salt tax revenue."

"For example, the story of King Jinggong in the Song Dynasty was changed over and over again, even to the point of causing the disgrace of Jingkang. The fall of the Northern Song Dynasty was all caused by Jinggong's reforms."

"Many policies may look good, but when implemented they not only fail to benefit the people, but actually harm them."

"That's why I ask the Duke to think again."

Liu Yu nodded and said: "What you said seems to make some sense. We still need to conduct on-site inspections and research. Policies must not be decided on the head, especially when it is a major matter that affects the use of salt by millions of people."

With just one word, the scene that had been as dead as if it had been cast by necromancy magic suddenly came to life.

Everyone thought, Damn it, the Duke is the Duke, and he has to be so big in asking for bribes.

With this big label, it seems that he is preparing to start with three to five million yuan.

Or put it another way, the easiest way to make money is to gamble your life and follow the dragon.

As long as the money is collected, it's easy to talk about, and the atmosphere suddenly relaxes.

For a while, he flattered Liu Yu again and said a lot of nonsense.

Liu Yu's words about salt merchants stopped there and did not go further in this direction.

As soon as the banquet was over, Shi Shiyong came to Liu Yu's room and asked, "Isn't the Duke showing off his power today? Doesn't he really want to get some money first?"

Liu Yu nodded and said: "Absolutely, money must be dug out, and reforms must be made. If you don't have money, how can you change it? Just in time, I want to report to His Majesty, Brother Shi will send someone back first. Then send a few more people , Escort my people to Songjiang Mansion.”

Shi Shiyong asked in confusion: "What can money solve in this matter?"

Liu Yu smiled, knocked on the table and said, "Those people were trying to scare me at the banquet today. Do you understand?"

"Well... they are scaring the Duke, saying that if they reform easily, they will easily end up in a situation like Duke Jing's reform, which will lead to people's livelihood being in dire straits." Shi Shiyong could still understand what he meant.

"Yeah, I haven't been scared by someone for several years. I didn't want to play like this at first, but if you scare me, then you will be punished. What problem can you solve with money? Money can buy salt. Hundreds of thousands of taels can be done. Interest, plus leverage, can help these old-era businessmen understand what times have changed. "

Shi Shiyong didn't know what Liu Yu was going to do, but following the procedures, he would also report today's events to the emperor. Liu Yu said that he also wanted to go to school, which saved him a lot of trouble.

Liu Yu, who had written a few words, suddenly sighed, shook his head and said: "I hope I didn't take off my pants and fart. If that happened, I would be so disappointed... These people are really It’s hopeless.”

During the historical salt policy reform, the biggest confrontation these salt merchants did, in addition to using official connections, was to find Taoist priests at home to practice witchcraft, and used playing cards to curse officials who supported the salt policy reform.

Liu Yu sincerely hopes that these people can do something, at least to prove that these businessmen still have the spirit to fight.

If they really mess around and end up taking off their pants and farting, those people can only stay at home and find monsters to fight with card curses. Then it is really... hopeless, just destroy it.

After sighing, Liu Yu wrote a memorial to the emperor, roughly explaining the means of reform - who to send to calm down the situation was a matter for the court, and he could only guarantee that there would be no mistakes in the reform process.

The Huaibei Salt Farm is not the only place in Dashun.

There is Changlu Salt Field in Tianjin, there is also Yingkou Salt Field in Liaodong, and there is also a salt field in Taiwan.

The salt output of Changlu Salt Field is extremely high.

Because before the reform of water transportation, a lot of salt from Changlu Salt Field flowed to various places on rice ships.

The salt that comes with the rice boats is theoretically "private salt" because the scope of Changlu Salt Farm management is not around the canal.

The water transportation reform that started this year has laid a good foundation for the success of this salt policy reform.

Water transportation can no longer be carried through canals, and a large amount of private salt in Changlu Salt Farm is backlogged.

There is no need to think about this, it is inevitable.

The rice ships carried long reed salt, not just a day or two. When the water transportation was abolished, this was also a reason to attack the canal. How could Liu Yu not know this?

The reform of the salt policy in the Huaibei Salt Farm seemed to be full of difficulties, but in fact the court did not understand what the difficulties of the reform were at all.

These salt merchants and general contractors are, to put it bluntly, a bunch of pigs.

They have only three ways of resisting.

The first is to use official relations and the intricate network of relationships to oppose reforms.

But the premise of this matter is that the emperor is a bitch and has soft ears. It is of no use to meet a group of emperors with hard ears. Even now, when this group of salt merchants encounter such a hard-hearted Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the officials with their official connections will cry.

The second type is to draw circles and curses at home.

The only third way that may have an impact is to rely on capital to fight.

They consume as much salt as they transport.

After they consume all the salt, they will cause a panic of salt shortage and force the court to give up the salt policy reform.

As for the remaining resistance methods, they only exist in theory and are just for thought in reality.

For example, they can collude with local officials, block salt ticket merchants from passing through, and the emperor can just print a salt ticket pass of sufficient level. What is the purpose of a spy organization like the Children's Army?

The key here is not the Huaibei Salt Field, but the entire Lianghuai Salt Field.

The salt merchants in Huaibei and Huainan are one family.

If the reform of Huaibei is successful, then Huainan will definitely be the next one.

Huaibei cannot be saved, but Huaibei salt reform must be made extremely troublesome, so as to save Huainan.

Huainan has 25 salt fields, while Huaibei has only three or five.

Huainan's annual salt permit is 1.4 million, while Huaibei has only 300,000.

Reform can only be carried out from Huaibei.

Only when the reform of Huaibei is successful can Huainan be moved.

For the salt merchants, Huaibei can be thrown away, just as a little meat.

And Huainan is the heart, lungs and bones.

So if they resist, they can only choose to use their capital to use all means to make the Huaibei salt reform a salt industry version of the "Refugee Map".

In this way, the court can only retreat.

Even if they continue to reform the Huaibei salt to save face, they will definitely not dare to move in Huainan.

It should be said that if these salt merchants have such "fighting" ability, it is still gratifying. At least they are not so rotten that Liu Yu feels destroyed. At least in the future they can transform and become part of the capital group for external expansion.

But I am afraid it is just a pile of rotten dog shit.

They can actually seize a weakness of Dashun, that is, Dashun's annual tax revenue and assets are not enough to fight against them.

To some extent, the total capital of Lianghuai salt merchants is more than the normal annual income of Dashun's treasury.

Moreover, Dashun had little control. At most, it could control some grain and guarantee a few million shi of grain. Apart from that, it could do nothing. The only thing Dashun could do in economic intervention was to guarantee the grain price in the capital area. Apart from that, it could not do anything.

This weakness can be exploited.

Even if you want to fight an economic war, you need money and materials, right? But where is the money in Dashun?

Liu Yu's plan was very simple. Since everything else was easy to say, the only thing to worry about was that the salt merchants would rely on capital to fight, so you had to be wary of this.

The reform of the grain transport system caused a large amount of smuggled salt to accumulate in the Changlu Salt Field.

In addition to Changlu salt, there are Yingkou salt and Taiwan salt. In theory, there is absolutely no shortage of salt.

However, Dashun did not have enough money to stockpile enough salt to prepare for this war.

Because salt is not made from silver, you need to stockpile salt, and silver cannot be used as salt. Dashun did not even have enough reserve grain, so how could it have money to stockpile salt?

So, what to do?

At this time, the role of Songjiang Prefecture Bank was reflected.

If the salt merchants bribed Liu Yu, Liu Yu could use the bribe money as interest and immediately borrow millions of silver.

These millions of silver could be paid in advance to the salt-making households in Changlu and other places.

First, they hoarded the smuggled salt they had produced before at a low price. The canal transportation was abolished and the smuggled salt had no market at all.

If they could not transport it out, they would pile it up at home and naturally sell it at a low price.

Second, they could also pay salt merchants elsewhere in advance and prepay a certain amount of money to let them increase production.

Although the Lianghuai salt merchants had a lot of capital, they actually did not have much working capital to mobilize.

A large amount of silver was used for lending; another part was used for the transportation of salt, which was a state of circulation. They did not have much silver that could be mobilized quickly.

If we count more, the working capital that could be mobilized, at most, would be 20 million taels. But how much could they eat with 20 million taels? How much could they dare to eat? Are they really that united?

If the Huainan salt merchants were going to make trouble in the Huaibei salt area, then they would let the salt be sold outside.

Sell ​​as much as you can eat.

The profit of salt is there. If they dare to eat, the court will dare to sell.

If they are really brave, they can eat all the salt sold by Liu Yu with the silver loaned by their bribes as interest, and they can make millions of taels by reselling.

When they can't eat anymore and admit defeat, send the children's army to arrest people - Dashun is not Britain or the Netherlands, and there are not so many perfect laws. Deliberately disrupting the salt policy can also be convicted.

In this way...

Songjiangfu Bank gets interest.

The court gets profit.

At the same time, enough salt is confiscated to build a reserve warehouse for emergency use.

Moreover, by then, the capital of Huainan salt merchants will basically be eaten up. Once they lose, there will be no resistance to the reform of Huainan's salt policy.

At that time, the salt will belong to the court's reserve warehouse.

The principal will be returned to the bank.

The court deposits the profits in the bank as precious metals, and uses salt and can be exchanged at any time to promote money.

Liu Yu is not afraid of them playing, but afraid of them not playing.

If they don't play and just give in, then it's just a waste of practice. The silver received as bribes is used as interest, and the salt is sold next year, and the principal is collected and repaid, and the profit is only the low price of smuggled salt. It's meaningless.

If this method is to succeed, four prerequisites are required.

Moreover, of these four prerequisites, only one is not determined now, and the rest are determined.

First, the basis of sea transportation is required.

Maritime transport not only ensures that salt from Changlu, Taiwan, Yingkou and other places can be quickly transported to Lianyungang...or Haizhou.

It is also a guarantee for the abandonment of the canal transport.

Secondly, with the basis of sea transport and going to Southeast Asia, the abandonment of the canal transport has led to a large amount of smuggled salt hoarding in Changlu salt, which is seriously in excess.

This year, these excess salts have guaranteed two benefits.

The first benefit is that these excess salts can be purchased at a low price to prepare for the salt war.

The second benefit is that the smuggling of salt has been cut off, and the effect of the Huaibei salt reform is really immediate.

The salt that can be sold this year is definitely more than before, which further proves the correctness of the salt reform.

Some people can only see the surface: in fact, it is the market for smuggled salt in the canal. Because the canal transport was abolished, the vacant market was occupied by official salt. This is the real reason. But in the eyes of others, that is the credit of the salt administration reform. Once it was changed, it doubled immediately. It is simply a system that can do everything.

The third condition is the large amount of sea trade silver in Songjiangfu Bank.

It can ensure that Liu Yu can quickly borrow enough silver at a not-too-high interest rate, or even half silver and half paper money.

These borrowed or slightly issued paper money can be used as capital to buy the most important bargaining chip in the salt war: salt.

Without this thing, the court would not be able to come up with so much money to play.

At most, take out 200,000 or 300,000 taels as the advance payment for the salt reform this year, and strive to promote the salt reform, so that no one will buy tickets. You can first use it as capital to buy salt and the government will sell salt.

These three conditions are now met, so the last condition is the emperor.

Emperor, do you want to play this way?

If the emperor does not want to play this way, but is superstitious about the power of the imperial power, and uses the secret service organization to investigate those who buy and hoard salt, so that they can see what the iron fist of the feudal imperial power is, then it will not work.

And it may be counterproductive.

Because... the power of the imperial power can arrest people, but it cannot guarantee commercial transactions, but will create a lot of chaos.

Dashun's economic control ability and grassroots administrative ability are like a pile of shit. It's okay to arrest people, but it's powerless to control.

So Liu Yu needed to write down all the benefits and factors clearly and wait for the emperor's reply.

If the emperor agreed in his reply, he would take the money.

If the emperor disagreed, he would not take the money to avoid trouble.

As for the change of salt syndicate to salt ticket, this was not a problem. The general contractor opposed it, but some of the sub-contractors supported it. And there was also a key force, the private salt dealers who were eager to become regular.